Israel’s first Ethiopian-born minister Pnina Tamano-Shata landed in Ethiopia on Saturday to prepare for the airlifting of 500 Ethiopian Jews to Israel on December 3.
Tamano-Shata, who serves as Israel’s Aliyah and Integration Minister, has been urging the Israeli government to bring home the thousands of Jews still waiting to make aliyah in her home country.
Tamano-Shata herself was brought to Israel from Ethiopia when she was a three-year-old during a top-secret Israeli mission called Operation Moses in 1984.
The minister hopes to bring all of the remaining members of the Ethiopian community to Israel.
The government approved the immigration of 2,000 members of the smaller Falash Mura community by February 2021.
They must receive special permission to return to Israel and are required to convert after immigrating.
Thousands of potential immigrants have been waiting at least 15 years to come to Israel. The Israeli government in 2015 passed a decision to airlift the last of the Ethiopian Jews within five years.
However, according to Jewish Agency figures, Israel has only evacuated 2,257 Ethiopians.
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