Minister of the Interior Deri on the government’s decision to allow four hundred Ethiopian immigrants to make aliya: They are not Jewish according to Halacha and the Law of Return.

Tuesday February 11, 2020, on Jacob Bardogo and Idan Kowler’s program on Radio Glatz, Interior Minister MK Aryeh Deri spoke about the government’s decision to approve the immigration of some four hundred immigrants from Ethiopia.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that his government approved the immigration of another four hundred immigrants from Ethiopia.

PM Netanyahu tweeted:

“Today my government approved the immigration of about 400 Ethiopian immigrants to Israel. I am proud that as Prime Minister, I have had the privilege to bring thousands of our Ethiopian brothers and sisters to Israel, and we intend to continue doing so. We are committed to the full integration of the [Ethiopian] community into Israeli society, and we will continue to do it in all areas”.

In response to the government’s decision, in the Radio Glatz interview, Minister Deri said:

“In my first term as Minister of Interior, after we approved the aliya of the entire Beta Israel community according to Rabbi Yosef’s ruling, the issue of the Falash Mura, those who left the Jewish faith, came up, and according to the ruling, they could not immigrate to Israel. I, for a whole year, spearheaded the issue of bringing the Falash mura to Israel and we did Giur Le’Chumra (conversion for someone who is probably Jewish). Those who have immigrated in the past fifteen years are not Falash Mura, they did not leave Judaism and convert to Christianity, they are from the seed of Israel. We brought all of the Falash Mura, down to every last one, and we are now talking about family reunification. Now the government has decided to approve the aliya of four hundred more, and we have started to prepare for this effort. Do not misunderstand– we will approve the aliya of anyone who has a Jewish mother or qualifies under the law of return, and we do not need a government decision for this. But all those who have made aliya in the past fifteen years are not Jewish according to halacha or under the law of return; we are talking about humane measures of family reunification“.

To hear the full interview (in hebrew) click here