Page 29 - Issue 21

allowed to make aliyah, prompting some activists to
call the delays for Ethiopian Jews racist.

“They have never stopped aliyah. I appeal to those
in charge to think of those waiting as human
beings, and to be a little sensitive. Their hearts and
their legs and their heads are already here, they
planned to immigrate, and at the last minute they
say no? It doesn’t make sense,” said Rata.

Rata said that her niece is in a difficult emotional
state, and so is her young son. Mimi's sisters, Snait's
mother and aunt, have immigrated in the last two
months. Snait is the last of her family remaining in
Ethiopia, making her situation all the more difficult.

"She has no one there. No family, she has nowhere
to be, and I fear for her life. I do not want my sister
to suffer like my mother. It took her 14 years to
meet her daughters," she said.

Ethiopian Jews attending Minister Tamano-Shata’s visit to
Ethiopia as part of the new aliyah operation.