On Sunday, the cabinet approved bringing to Israel more Falash Mura from Ethiopia "for religious and humanitarian" reasons. With the flip of a finger, and without any unnecessary questions, the ministers approved the transfer of billions of shekels (estimated at NIS 4 billion) to absorb 8,000 residents, who are not even Jewish, of the transit camp in Gondar.
Not even the Law of Return recognizes the Falash Mura, and Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Immigrant Absorption officials opposed the decision, but the ministers? Of course they voted for. Who would dare object to the children of foreign workers and Ethiopians?
While the Israeli government is unable to deal with the absorption of Ethiopian Jews who immigrated 20 years ago, and who barely receive any budgets, at the instigation of Minister of Interior Eli Yishai (Shas), in the coming years thousands of more like them will arrive.
According to Ministry of Finance sources, apart form the absorption basket, worth about NIS 70,000 to each family, every household also receives a grant for purchasing an apartment of NIS 600,000 to NIS 900,000. On their arrival, the Falash Mura will live in hotels, which will serve as their absorption centers for periods of two to five years, at a cost of tens of millions of shekels annually. In addition, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, will each receive a budget of NIS 100 million for dealing with the immigrants.
Moreover, because of the collapse of welfare services in local authorities that deal with the Ethiopian population, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption operates 20 centers in the main cities, at a cost of NIS 700,000 each, to provide services to this community.
The sub-total so far is already in the billions of shekels, and this still does not take into account scholarships awarded to the community: every student of university age receives a scholarship for a first and second degree of some NIS 70,000.
Where will the Falash Mura live? City mayors object to absorbing them because of the burden on already over-stretched welfare, housing, and education services.
A Shas spokesperson said, "Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled 25 years ago that these are Jews whom we have a duty to bring to Israel for moral reasons. Closing the refugee camps and bringing the Falash Mura to Israel are not something Yishai can boast about as an achievement for some particular sector. There is no political payoff, only the implementation of the rabbi's ruling."
The Prime Minister's Office said, "In the past two years, 2,000 people have immigrated from Ethiopia annually, and so the budget for this decision is already in the base budget and multi-year program of the ministries. In addition, in order to prevent the formation of bottlenecks in absorption and mortgages, the government has appointed a committee headed by the director general of the Ministry of Finance to deal with the budgetary issues that arise."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 18, 2010
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