Israel starts next week to bring into Israel 18,000 Flasha Jews

The Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom announced by the end of his visit to Addid Ababa yesterday that Israel will start transporting all Flasha Jews so far remaining in Ethiopia to Israel, as from the beginning of next week, but the Ethiopian government warned that it will not permit this time the departure of the Falasha Jews in the form of a mass migration, through an air bridge, as happened earlier during the crisis that took place in Ethiopia in 1984 and 1991.

Shalom told the press to the end of a visit which lasted for two days "we want to transport the Falasha so far remained in Israel, as from the beginning of next week. We do believe that they should live in Israel."

At least some 18,000 Jews live in Ethiopia, believed that many of them want to migrate to Israel to escape poverty. On Wednesday Shalom visited the Northern Joundar area, where the Falasha Jews live, and held talks with people of the area. A number of 80,000 Flasha Jews are estimated to live in Israel. In 1984, Israel organized a secret air bridge to transport some 8,000 of them to Israel escaping the starvation and the political unrest, while some 15,000 of them were transported to Israel by the end of 1990 by the end of the civil war in Ethiopia.

Shalom, however, said that Israel hopes to strengthen its historical relations with Ethiopia, which is a main source for coffee and leather production, through trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.