TEL AVIV — Four hundred sixteen olim (immigrants) arrived in Israel last week from Ethiopia, as part one of “Operation Zur Israel.”
The operation follows Israel’s decision last October to approve the immigration of 2,000 members of the Ethiopian community, many of whom have been waiting for decades to move to Israel and reunite with their families.
Ethiopian olim kiss the ground of Israel after arriving at Ben Gurion airport.
Minister of Aliyah and Integration Pnina Tamano-Shata and chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Isaac Herzog, along with the Ministry of Interior, are overseeing the operation.
“I was on a week-long mission in an attempt to bridge the decades-long gap for thousands of Ethiopian Jews who were left behind after Operation Solomon and the government decisions that followed. They are waiting not only to fulfill their dream of Israel and Jerusalem but to meet their basic request of reuniting with their families here in Israel,” Tamano-Shata said.
“It was extremely difficult and unsettling for me to see so many of the waiting community living with malnutrition, poverty and in extreme conditions.
“Their lives are literally on hold. It’s not easy to receive phone calls from elderly mothers pleading to bring their children home who were left behind in Ethiopia, who they had not seen for many years and who have so far been refused aliyah. Sometimes there are one or two children left behind, with the rest of the family here in Israel.
“I’m optimistic. I believe in us as a society and believe that we will do everything possible to quickly resolve this painful and personal issue that has been going on for too many years.
“I consider Operation Zur Israel one of the greatest deeds and one of the best decisions made by the unity government. A moment that transcends the controversies and debates, a moment of saving lives and, most important, a moment of national duty that reminds us who we are as a people and that we are privileged to return home after thousands of years of exile. Am Yisrael Chai!”
Herzog added, “For years, families both in Ethiopia and Israel have been pleading and praying to rejoin their loved ones. It was wonderful to see Minister of Aliyah and Integration Pnina Tamano Shata land with the olim on this first flight, an emotional chapter in her own personal story.
“The Jewish Agency, together with the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and the Ministry of Interior, have been working for weeks — both in Israel and on the ground in Ethiopia — to make this moment possible. We are now seeing it unfold before our eyes.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “I do not remember being so moved, for many years, by such a purely Zionist sight that expresses all that we stand for.
“My wife Sara and I stood with tears in our eyes at the reception, watching the olim, our Ethiopian Jewish brothers and sisters getting off the plane . . . touching the ground, the Land of Israel.
“A mother kissed the ground as she exited the plane, carrying a baby named Jerusalem and another baby named Esther. Esther and Jerusalem have now come to Israel — and this is the essence of the Jewish story, this is the essence of the Zionist story.
“In my discussions with the National Security Council, along with the Sudanese government with whom we are in contact for normalization and peace, I have sought to allow families to visit the sites in Sudan where their loved ones perished on the journey to Israel. This process is progressing,” Netanyahu added.
Following the required quarantine of all new arrivals, the olim will reunite with their families in Israel.
The Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and the Jewish Agency will help settle the olim in absorption centers throughout the country, where they will receive support and guidance in all areas of life, from learning Hebrew to entering the workforce and the Israeli education system.
Since the establishment of the state, Israel has brought 3.3 million olim to Israel with the assistance of the Jewish Agency, including 95,000 immigrants from Ethiopia.
In the mid-1980s, 8,000 immigrants arrived with Operation Moses through Sudan. In Operation Solomon, conducted in 1991, an airlift brought 14,000 immigrants to Israel.
In the summer of 2013, The Jewish Agency concluded Operation Doves’ Wings, which brought an 7,000 immigrants from Ethiopia to Israel.
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