The establishment of a ministerial-level committee to meet the requirements of the nation’s Ethiopian community was announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
“I am aware that there are still obstacles to overcome, but this committee is the means by which we may continue to advance our Ethiopian community brothers and sisters. As has been the case up until now, I am confident that all ministries will work with it, added Netanyahu.
The Israeli Ethiopian community held a memorial earlier this month to remember the thousands who lost their lives trying to get to the Jewish nation, and the prime minister and other government officials attended.
The event honored the 4,000 Beta Israel members who passed away between 1979 and 1990 while walking from transit camps in the adjacent Sudan, most commonly from starvation and sickness.
At the ceremony, Netanyahu praised revisions to the curriculum that added information about the Ethiopian migration and pledged to increase support for housing, work, education, and health.
In a series of airlifts beginning in 1980, some 90,000 Ethiopian Jews arrived in Israel.
Nearly 2% of Israel’s population, or about 160,000 people, are Ethiopian Israelis today.
One hundred eleven new Ethiopian immigrants arrived in the Jewish state on May 9.
The head of the Jewish Agency executive who oversaw efforts to transfer Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the 1980s, IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, welcomed the new immigrants.
He said, “Each plane carrying olim [Jewish immigrants] is a historic occasion for the Jewish people.
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