Military

DATE=2/16/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL/ETHIOPIA (L)

NUMBER=2-299706

BYLINE=ROSS DUNN

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Israel's Cabinet decided Sunday to allow about 17-thousand Ethiopians waiting in refugee camps to move to the Jewish state. Ross Dunn reports from Jerusalem.

TEXT: The Cabinet agreed to allow in up to 95 per cent of the 20-thousand Ethiopians, who have applied for immigration, claiming they are Jews. Known as the Falash Mura, they had converted to Christianity but have maintained some Jewish traditions.

Many had moved from outlying areas of Ethiopia in anticipation of being accepted for immigration to Israel and had rented mud huts near two compounds in Addis Ababa, the capital, and the northern city of Gondar.

Some had already succeeded in immigrating after proving they had either a Jewish grandparent or to be reunited with other family members who had moved to Israel.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai, a member of the Jewish ultra-orthodox Shas Party, was appointed to head a ministerial committee to oversee the process.

He told the Cabinet that the decision should be implemented immediately because the Ethiopians waiting in camps were living in what he called difficult and even dangerous conditions

The spiritual leader of Shas, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has decreed that the Falash Mura Ethiopians must be accepted as Jews because they had converted to Christianity out of fear.

Advocates of the decision also argued that there were humanitarian concerns, including the fact that many of the Ethiopians who had applied to immigrate had been separated from their families for many years and could even be in danger of starvation.

About 80-thousand Ethiopian Jews live in Israel. Many of them were brought over in massive Israeli airlifts during times of crisis in 1984 and 1991.

The exact origins of Jews in Ethiopia is unclear but probably dates backs to ancient times when it had clear links to the Middle East.

A kingdom of Jews in Ethiopia is recorded in chronicles of the 15th century, but it was conquered and dismantled by Portuguese forces in the 17th and 18th centuries. (Signed)

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