Falash Mura kid No Blacks Please We Are IsraelisIsraeli interior minister Meir Sheetrit has created a race storm in his country after suggesting that Ethiopians claiming Jewish ancestry (Falash Mura) be barred from emigrating (aliya) to Israel.

The minister further added salt to injury by saying that the Falash are not really Jews and that they had only been allowed to emigrate to Israel in the first place because of political correctness:

“Fallash Mura aliya from Ethiopia should be stopped immediately and Israel should focus on becoming a “real state” rather than a “committee” for the Jewish people, according to Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post earlier this week, he said the immigration of the Falash Mura – people whose Jewish ancestors were forcibly converted to Christianity centuries ago – was a mission that is impossible to finish.

“We are creating a hell of a job for ourselves because of political correctness or trying to be nice,” Sheetrit said.

“Who needs them?” he said about the Falash Mura. “They are all Christians. We need to take care of the future of Israel and this [aliya] will never finish.”

Sheetrit said it was time for Israel to become more focused on being a serious state and to stop being the “committee of the Jewish community.”

Asked whether this stance would put him in direct conflict with organized US Jewry, which has been actively involved in supporting and funding the immigration of an estimated 4,500 remaining Falash Mura, he responded: “I don’t care.”

“If they want to take care of them, take them to America,” Sheetrit said. “I haven’t seen them take even one Ethiopian to America. In the meantime, Israel is the only country to get Ethiopians, and we accept them with open hearts.” (Source: Jerusalem Post)

Members of the Falasha community have denounced the interior minister:

“The way he is expressing himself has a smell of racism about it because he would not say such statements to any other immigrants from America or Russia,” said Avraham Neguise, chairman of the Representatives of Ethiopian Immigrant Organisations in Israel.

“His remarks are unacceptable and irresponsible. The state of Israel is the home for every Jew and is it not the minister’s private home.

“These people have been described and identified as part of Jewish Ethiopian community by the chief rabbinate. They are our blood, our flesh and our bones.” (Source: Daily Telegraph)

Image source: Meg and Rahul

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