Airline dispute halts Ethiopia-Israel immigration

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 1/12/2011

Source: MSN News

An airline dispute has grounded hundreds of Ethiopians claiming Jewish descent from immigrating to Israel, an official said on Wednesday.

Israel had flown 100 of the Ethiopian claimants, known as Falash Mura, to Tel Aviv each month on Ethiopian Airlines in recent years but none has come since December, said Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency, the quasi-governmental agency that handles Jewish immigration.

Since then the Ethiopian national carrier has refused to fly the Falash Mura, citing lack of cabin space, due to Israel's refusal to allow an increase in the number of weekly flights from three to five, said Jankelowitz.

Israel has been demanding that an Israeli airline also be allowed to fly the route, but Ethiopia has so far refused.

The issue came to a head on Wednesday when Ethiopian authorities refused to allow a foreign-owned aircraft chartered by the agency to land in Addis Ababa to pick up 170 emigrants, said Jankelowitz.

A second plane chartered for Thursday was also cancelled, he said.

"They are all now stranded in Addis Ababa outside the Jewish Agency compound," he said.

Israel began bringing Ethiopia's Jewish community to Israel in 1984 under the Law of Return, which guarantees citizenship to all Jews. That operation was largely completed by 1991.

The Falash Mura are not considered to be Jewish under the faith's strict rules and therefore are not eligible under the law. Nevertheless, successive Israeli governments have authorised bringing some 11,000 of them to Israel.

The Falash Mura are the descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity, many of them under duress, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many have relatives among the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel.

Jankelowitz said the agency was now negotiating to charter an aircraft from Ethiopian Airlines.