TOI reports that Israel will reexamine its policies regarding further immigration from Ethiopia amid increased fighting in the African nation, the Immigration and Absorption Ministry said Wednesday.

Minister Ofir Sofer appointed Brig. Gen. (Reserves) Harel Kanfo to oversee the review process and present his conclusions to the minister.

The move comes amid increased protests in Israel by the Ethiopian community and a day after Sofer reportedly said no rescue mission was being planned out of Gondar, Ethiopia, for locals who say they have Jewish roots.

According to the Ynet news site, Sofer’s comments were made in a meeting with activists working to increase immigration quotas from Ethiopia following their protest rally on Sunday in Jerusalem, in which hundreds of Israelis of Ethiopian descent demanded that more people be let into Israel from the African country in light of fighting between rival factions in its northern provinces.

“Today proves that we are not brethren,” the Struggle to Bring the Jews of Ethiopia, an unofficial alliance of activists, said in a statement following the meeting. “Those who airlifted 200 Israelis out of Ethiopia while leaving thousands in Gondar, at the center of the inferno of war, are directly responsible for their fates.”

Last week, Israel extracted 204 individuals that the government said were either Israelis or eligible to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return for Jews and their relatives.

Source - TOI/Twitter - Image - Tomer Neuberg/Flash90