At a recent conference on Bnei Menashe immigration, Minister of Aliyah and Integration Ofir Sofer announced plans to bring 5,000 members of the community from northeastern India to Israel. “I’ve chosen to focus my efforts on strengthening the integration of the Bnei Menashe community in Israel,” Sofer said, according to media reports.
The Bnei Menashe are believed to be descendants of one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, exiled over 2,700 years ago. Originating in the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, many members of the community began practicing Judaism in the 20th century and have undergone formal conversion. More than 5,000 Bnei Menashe have already immigrated to Israel over the past two decades, largely through efforts coordinated by private organizations and religious bodies.
Sofer’s announcement surprised many activists—particularly because the same ministry has stalled Ethiopian aliyah since he took office two years ago.
In August 2023, Sofer appointed Harel Knafo to serve as project coordinator for Ethiopian immigration. Knafo consulted with Ethiopian-Israeli Knesset members, rabbis, and community leaders—even during wartime—and submitted a detailed plan in June 2024 offering four alternatives, ranging from minimal to large-scale aliyah. Since then, the document has remained untouched, and no government action has followed.
The Ethiopian-Israeli community maintains that 14,000 of their Jewish relatives are still waiting in Ethiopia, while the Israeli government continues to assert that no one remaining there qualifies for aliyah under the Law of Return.
This reflects a crucial distinction between aliyah—Jewish immigration under Israel’s Law of Return, a foundational law passed in 1950—and general immigration. In recent years, most Ethiopian immigrants have not arrived under the Law of Return, which grants the right to immigrate to any Jew or anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent. Instead, they’ve come through a government policy focused on family reunification.
From 2020 to 2023, approximately 5,000 Ethiopians arrived in Israel through “Tzur Yisrael,” a special government initiative. The majority of those individuals were not officially recognized by the state as Jewish. Rather, they were permitted to immigrate because they are close relatives of Israelis and because of the ongoing armed conflict and instability in Ethiopia.
Some 1,226 Ethiopians waiting in camps have already been approved to come to Israel under Government Resolution 713, known as “Tzur Yisrael.” Although they met all eligibility criteria, the government claims there is no budget to bring them to Israel. The same resolution states that additional funding should be found if more eligible individuals are identified, making the continued delay even harder to explain.
Even Sofer’s party colleague, MK Moshe Solomon, expressed his anger. “I pushed for a plan and a project manager, but I see no progress,” Solomon told Davar. An advocate for the aliyah of Jews from the Tigray region, he said, “Someone needs to provide answers.”
Yitzhak Mula, who leads the protest movement for Ethiopian aliyah, was more direct: “It’s time for the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, led by Minister Sofer, to explain why it’s ignoring the cries of thousands of IDF soldiers and citizens asking to bring their families home from Ethiopia. Why must the community fight for the basic right to make aliyah and live in Israel with their parents and siblings? We demand a serious, funded plan—not more promises.”
The issue is particularly painful given that many in Israel’s Ethiopian community are serving in the military. “I served six years in the IDF and said, ‘My grandmother’s aliyah has nothing to do with my service,’” Svinor Tarkayn told Davar in a November 2023 interview. “But now I see my mother suffering, and my brothers in the army ask, ‘Where’s grandma?’ Many soldiers are in the same position.”
Tarkayn’s grandmother and uncles remain in Gondar. Two of his brothers are in the reserves, and a third is on active duty. Now, he said, it’s time to demand family reunification.
Sofer’s office said that the minister “is working to establish a consensus-based aliyah framework and is in ongoing dialogue with government ministers, coalition and opposition lawmakers, and the Chief Rabbinate.”
