THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, January 12, 1919 5
Israel to Admit 100 Boat People, Now Facing Falasha Problem
(Continued from Page 1)
spicuous. Tiberias,
Naharia, Afula and Safed
were mentioned.
The refugees have spent
the last several weeks
aboard a ship in Manila
after Asian countries re-
fused to admit them. Israel
is presently in touch with
the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
to work out details of their
transfer. A government
chartered plane is expected
to leave for Manila this
week to airlift the Viet-
namese to Israel. Upon ar-
rival they will receive the
treatment usually given
refugees from lands of op-
pression.
There are presently 5,000
Vietnamese "boat people"
aboard the freighter near
Manila and one off Hong -
Kong.
Israel was apparently
spurred to act by "peace
pilot" Abie Nathan who has
been conducting a world-
wide campaign on behalf of
the refugees from Vietnam.
Nathan made a formal re-
quest to the government
last week to admit 400 of the •
refugees from the ship in
Manila. He said that sev-
eral Dutch philanthropists
had pledged $200,000 to pay
for the airlift.
Nathan received Sun-
day's Cabinet decision
with mixed feelings. He
said he had hoped that all
400 would be admitted to
Israel but since the
number was limited to a
token 100 he would try to
persuade various Euro-
pean governments to re-
ceive the others.
Naor insisted that there
was "no connection" be-
tween Nathan's initiative
and the Cabinet's decision.
He said the issue had been
raised at a Cabinet meeting
about two months ago and
referred also to a Par-
liamentary question on the
subject by two Likud MKs
six weeks ago. He said
Nathan was "a good citizen"
but appeared to disparage
the "wide publicity" that, he
said, Nathan had secured
for his activities on behalf of
the Vietnamese refugees.
The Cabinet vote was
11-2 with four abstentions,
according to Naor. Reli-
gious Affairs Minister Aha-
ron Abu Hatzeira of the Na-
- tional Religious Party and
Housing Minister Gideon
Patt ,of Likud voted against
the airlift on grounds that
Israel should not become
involved in a refugee prob-
lem that was beyond its
ability to solve.
Three of the four abstain-
ing were Foreign Minister
Moshe Dayan, Interior
Minister Yosef Burg and
Agriculture Minister Ariel
Sharon. The fourth minister
abstaining *as not iden-
tified. The majority of the
Cabinet, however, felt Is-
rael should set a moral
example in this instance.
* * *
•
Cabinets Talks
of Falashas' Fate
The Cabinet also dis-
cussed the increasingly ur-
gent problem of the
New Falasha immigrants in Israel study Hebrew.
Falashas, the Jews of nor the Zionist institu-
Ethiopia, who are seeking tions had done much to
to come to Israel, but no de- rescue Ethiopian Jews.
cisions, if any, were an-
The demonstrators say
nounced. Some 150 7,000 of Ethiopia's 28,000
Falashas demonstrated Falashas are homeless,
outside the Prime Minis- 2,000 are in refugee camps
ter's Office while the and hundreds have been
Cabinet was in session, cal- kidnapped and sold into
ling for the government's slavery since 1974 when
help to bring their perse- civil strife erupted in
cuted brethren out of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia' to Israel.
I Absorption Minister
Premier Menahem David Levy said the gov-
Begin met with leaders of ernment "did, is doing and
the Falasha community will continue to do" every-
in Israel last Friday. He thing on behalf of Ethiopian
told them that the gov- Jews. He said he could not
ernment regarded the elaborate. Nathan, mean-
Falashas as Jews and ex- while, said the Falashas
pressed the hope that all were next on his list of
will eventually immig- priorities. He said he would
rate to Israel. But for the try to get permission to go to
time being, he urged Ethiopia and bring them
them to keep a low profile back to Israel.
in their campaign. The
Last week, the Jewish
Falasha leaders rejected Agency issued the following
this. They charged that statement in. response to
neither the government charges by Falasha ac-
tivists that it had been re-
miss in dealing with the
NEW YORK — Flying plight of Ethiopian Jews:
"Without going into de-
into 70 airports across the
country on Dec. 27 and 28 to tails of the possibilities of
collect checks from some aliya of Ethiopian Jews
100 community campaigns, in the past, the Jewish
the United Jewish Appeal's Agency hereby clarifies
fleet of 11 Operation Pony that even during the
Express planes helped period of the previous re-
achieve a 1978 cash total of gime, that of Emperor
$277.5 . million, the highest Haile Selassie, the policy
since the Yom Kippur War. of the Ethiopian govern-
The peacetime year re- ment was against
cord, announced by Stanley Falasha aliya, because
L. Sloane,. UJA national the regime saw them as
cash chairman, represents Ethiopian citizens in
an increase of more than $5 every way and therefore
million over last year's to- saw their future in
Ethiopia. The few
tal.
Mitchell Rasansky, who Falashas who did leave
created the airborne collec- left in order to study
tion concept in 1977 and abroad, and with a view
was the chairman of the to returning there.
"Regarding the more re-
1978 operation, reported
that, in magnitude and cent period: according to the
coverage, the Dec. 27-28 rulings of the Chief Rabbis
sweep doubled last year's of-. of Israel, there is no doubt
that the Falashas are Jews
fort.
and that the Law of Return
applies to them. Therefore,
the Jewish Agency deals
with them in the same way
that it deals with any other
Jewish community.
"The present internal
situation in Ethiopia, in-
, ternational circumstances,
the cutoff of ties between Is-
rael and Ethiopia, and other
factors are all, of course,
causes that make dealing
with Falasha aliya espe-
cially difficult. For those
reasons,- too, the Jewish
Agency is not prepared to
respond to reports and re-
cent publications in the
media regardingthis issue."
In New York on Monday,
200 demonstrators carrying
placards reading "No More
- Holocausts: Mass Aliya for
Ethiopian Jews," and
chanting "Save Ethiopian
Jewry Now," marched in
front of the Israeli Consu-
late in the first vigil for
Ethiopian Jewry. The vigil,
which later moved to the
Isaiah Wall opposite the
United Nations, was spon-
sored by the American
Association for Ethiopian
Jewry (AAEJ).
Representatives of the
AAEJ delivered a letter
to the Israeli Consulate,
calling on the Israeli gov-
ernment and world
Jewish organizations to
make the rescue . of
Ethiopian Jewry a mat-
ter of the highest priority.
Eli Rockowitz, AAEJ
spokesman, read an ex-
cerpt from a letter to
Begin from the Falashas
in Israel which stated:
"We believe with all our
hearts that there is the
danger of immediate an-
nihilation facing our people
(in Ethiopia) and this threat
can no longer remain a mat-
ter of concern only for us
and for the few people in Is-
rael working on this matter.
The fate of our people must
be a cause for concern for
Jews everywhere. We now
publicly cry out to. them to
save their, people in
Ethiopia."
The AAEJ in Los Angeles
called on American Jews to
write to Begin, the Jewish
Agency, the Joint Distribu-
tion Committee, the He-
20% DISCOUNT
brew Immigrant Aid
Society and the Organiza-:
tion for Rehabilitation
through Training to in-
crease their efforts for the
Falashas.
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