Ethiopian Israelis say about 10,000 relatives stranded for years as immigration and absorption programs remain on hold; critics accuse government of racist double standard
By Ariela Karmel Follow
1 February 2026, 11:17 pm
Members of the Jewish Ethiopian community hold up family photos of loved ones who remain in Ethiopia, during a protest near the Knesset, February 1, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
Demonstrators gathered outside the Knesset on Sunday demanding that the government facilitate the immigration of approximately 10,000 relatives of Israelis of Ethiopian descent, given ongoing violence and strife in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Protesters said the government has halted immigration from Ethiopia and stopped funding for it, demanding that leaders immediately “reallocate funds to resume immigration and bring to Israel those whose situation continues to deteriorate against the backdrop of the civil war in Ethiopia,” according to a statement from the organization, Power for Aliyah, which assists Ethiopian immigrants.
The group estimated that roughly 2,000 protesters came from across the country, mostly from the Ethiopian community, many of whom have family members waiting in Ethiopia to immigrate.
The gathering was the latest in a longstanding effort to bring to Israel descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity in the 19th century, often under duress, as well as some of their relatives. The minority has been known as Falash Mura, a term some regard as derogatory.
The community stayed behind in Ethiopia as Israel, in the 1980s and 1990s, extracted those who were widely seen as the main and oldest Jewish presence in Ethiopia, known as Beta Israel. In 1992, Beta Israel Ethiopians living in Israel began lobbying for their converted relatives who had stayed behind to be allowed to immigrate.
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Since the 2000s, about 25,000 converted community members, who are not eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return, have immigrated under government decrees, on the condition that they undergo Orthodox conversion to Judaism.
Calls to extract the population intensified when Ethiopia became engulfed in a violent civil war in 2020, killing hundreds of thousands and leading to widespread famine. Despite a peace agreement in November 2022, the country has not recovered.
Following a government decision in 2020, community members whose parents or children live in Israel may immigrate, but only if they are unmarried and have no children.
In 2021, 2,000 community members, many of whom had been waiting for years at transit camps in Gondar and Addis Ababa, were brought to Israel under Operation Tzur Israel, in an effort spearheaded by then-immigration minister Pnina Tamano-Shata, who herself is of Ethiopian descent.
The operation was in essence a family reunification program, allowing the children, spouses, and families of those who had already immigrated to Israel to reunite.
By July 2023, an additional 3,000 immigrants were brought over.
In the two-and-a-half years since, no plans have been made to extract the remaining population, estimated at approximately 10,000, according to Power for Aliyah, prompting numerous protests by the Ethiopian community calling for the resumption of immigration.
Many in the current far-right religious coalition have sought to limit immigration to Israel of those not considered Jewish under halacha, or Jewish law.
Tamano-Shata told The Times of Israel that many of those waiting to immigrate were not only eligible under current law, but had already been approved for immigration and were set to do so when she was minister.
“The government has halted immigration for three years, thereby putting the lives of those waiting — and of their families in Israel — on hold,” she said, speaking at the protest.
“This is ongoing mistreatment of Ethiopian immigrants,” she continued, adding that “the government does not count Ethiopian Jews in Israel.”
Labor MK Gilad Kariv, who chairs the Knesset’s Immigration and Absorption Committee, told The Times of Israel that the government has “halted the family reunification processes” for people who were supposed to arrive under the established criteria but did not because funding had not been allocated for their absorption.
Some critics of the government argue that immigration is blocked because of racism, citing the state’s willingness to absorb former Soviet immigrants, and, more recently, Ukrainian and Russian immigrants fleeing the Russia-Ukraine war, many of whom were not considered Jewish.
“This is a government whose immigration policy is discriminatory. There are no other words for it,” Kariv said.
The government has rejected this claim. Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer told The Times of Israel that his office “encourages the immigration of Jews from all over the world at all times” and that “in the near future, a professional delegation will be sent to examine the issue of those eligible from Ethiopia under the Law of Return. If individuals eligible under the Law of Return are identified, we will act to advance their immigration promptly.”
Power for Aliyah chair Gabi Warko said: “The government of Israel is leaving them to continue waiting in Ethiopia and ignoring their terrible pain. We intend to continue the struggle regularly until the government comes to its senses and brings all of our families.”