Ethiopian Jews fleeing war stuck in Addis Ababa, await local security checks
An internally displaced woman cuts wood in the makeshift camp where she is sheltered in the village of Erebti, Ethiopia, in the Afar region on June 09, 2022. Photo by Getty Images
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.
Sixty-three Ethiopian Jews fleeing war in their country are stuck in Addis Ababa waiting for Ethiopian authorities to complete security checks, which have lasted weeks, despite being entitled to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return.
The Ethiopian Embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed the delays and promised that the security checks would be completed soon. They are checking to ensure that there are no extremists among them who fought in the 2021 civil war.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said “The delay in the exit of these families is due to waiting for approvals from the Ethiopian authorities, not from Israel. The issue in question is known and handled at the highest levels in the Foreign Ministry.”
In the interim, the Jewish Agency put up the families at an Addis Ababa hotel.
The group includes 44 people who were rescued from the Gondar region of Ethiopia on August 10. Another 28 have received approvals but are still waiting to leave. Half of them are minors, and the oldest is 80.
Last Wednesday, nine Ethiopians with travel documents or passports, flew to Israel.
Former MK Shlomo Molla, who works to uplift Ethiopian Jews, believes Israel can do more. “Ethiopian immigrants always have to dust, beg, demonstrate and say ‘father and mother’ in front of the Prime Minister’s Office until they let them exercise their rights,” he said. “We will continue to fight with determination as always until the last Ethiopian Jew realizes his right.”
Talking about the delay, a top Israeli official involved in the affair told Haaretz that “They have little appetite or desire right now to help us. We brought them to Addis and got them out of the war zone, but in order for them to leave Ethiopia, they still need to get approval and Ethiopian [government] papers that confirm their identities.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it had appealed to the Ethiopian government at the highest levels requesting that they be allowed to facilitate the exit process. One source said that Foreign Minister Eli Cohen was personally involved.
“In diplomacy, when you get no answer, that in itself is an answer,” said an Israeli Foreign Ministry source involved in the affair.
An Ethiopian Embassy official said that “we don’t want this to happen again,” referring to the 2021 controversy in which 77 Ethiopians from the Tigray war zone were brought to Israel despite some of them being wanted by the Ethiopian authorities for their part in the civil war.
“We will allow them to leave, but they need to be checked. It takes time, but they are working on it, and they will soon arrive in Israel. The government has no reason not to allow them to board. This is an intelligence matter. In the end, they will reach Israel,” said an embassy source.
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