Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked vowed during a rare visit to Ethiopia to help Ethiopia's Jews immigrate to Israel as soon as possible.
Speaking to a group gathered at a synagogue in Addis Ababa on Sunday, Shaked remarked that "These [Israeli] programs that will eventually reunite Ethiopian Jews with their families in Israel are not generally easy."
"But I will try everything within my power to work with relevant offices to make this happen in the shortest time possible," she said.
Shaked, on what is reported to be her first official visit to Africa, said she came to find out more about the situation among Ethiopia's estimated 8,000 remaining Jews.
About 140,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel today. Although many of those remaining in Ethiopia are practicing Jews, Israel doesn't consider them Jewish, meaning they are not automatically eligible to immigrate under its Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent. Instead of automatic citizenship, the government must actively approve their arrival.
Ethiopian community members have been permitted to immigrate over the last two decades in limited bursts that have left hundreds of families torn apart.
Members of the Ethiopian Jewish community who attended the meeting told Shaked that they wanted to make aliyah, as many of their family members had done years ago.
"We know aliyah for Jews … in other countries happened so swiftly that sometimes even their dogs were also included as they moved to Israel. Are we less important than these dogs?" asked Meles Sidisto, the community head of Ethiopia's Jews in Addis Ababa.
In an emotional speech, Sidisto reiterated that members of Ethiopia's Jewish population were planning to stage a mass hunger strike unless Israel reunites them with their families soon.
"We are unhappy here," he went on to say. "We have had enough here. If our situation is not resolved in a very short time, we will hold a momentous mass hunger strike that will help us present our voice to Israel and the world," he said.
Tigabu Worku, one of the synagogue's most active members, read a letter to Shaked in which he complained that he has been separated from his family for years.
"I have been torn from my younger sisters Leah and Sarah for 18 years," said Tigabu. "Eighteen years I have missed them. Eighteen years I have waited to see their faces that I no longer remember."
Ethiopia's Falash Mura Jews are believed to be descendants of one of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel. Ethiopia's Jewish population resides mainly in the Amhara and Tigray provinces.
Thousands of Falash Muras moved to Israel under the Law of Return in April 1975 and most of those who remain in Ethiopia have been separated for well over a decade from family members.
The Israeli government declined to approve funding for the relocation of the Ethiopian community in its new budget but said a special ministerial committee would discuss the issue. A date for that meeting had not been announced.
