By Shlomit Sharvit, ynetnews.com

JERUSALEM — Mass demonstration held in front of Prime Minister’s Office for 8,700 Falash Mura members who were promised aliyah in 2005, yet remain in Ethiopia; nine protestors arrested.

Taish Tafaka, a 29-year-old mother of two, has been in Israel for four years. Her father, brother and sister are in Gondar, Ethiopia and are presently forbidden from immigrating to Israel.

“Why are they separating us?” Tafaka asked on Sunday morning alongside 5,000 people in a protest in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, in which some people were arrested.

“We are in contact by telephone and it is very hard on them. They don’t have food and we send them money; giving what we can,” said Tafaka, who is in Israel with her four brothers.

“We go to the Interior Ministry every day and ask them to bring them here; we don’t understand why it isn’t happening. I am a Jew, so my mom is a Jew, why are they separating us?”

Some 8,700 Jewish people are waiting in the Gondar community as the government refuses to look into their right to immigrate to Israel, despite a promise made in 2005.

In light of this same promise, they left their homes in their villages and cities in Ethiopia; some of them have been waiting there for eight years.

In 2005, the government promised to bring 17,000 Falash Mura members to Israel but the last official flight arrived two weeks ago and the capacity has been filled.

The Prime Minister’s Office emphasized that immigration from Ethiopia will not stop but that the active search for Jews will not continue. Nonetheless, the government will look into all requests made by people wanting to come to Israel.

A PM’s Office official said, “There is no commitment to a specific number of Falash Mura members that will immigrate to Israel, but there will not be one Ethiopian Jew who has the right to immigrate to Israel based on the Law of Return, who won’t immigrate.”

The protesters held the pictures of parents, children, relatives and others from which they have been separated. Notat Bargahano stood in the scorching sun with tears in her eyes and a picture of a little girl and a baby who remain in Ethiopia.

In a new immigrant’s Hebrew, she explained that she is alone in Israel, waiting while they wait to move to Israel alongside her brother in Gondar.

Ethiopian community leader Avraham Nagusa said in the demonstration that “Chief Rabbi Rishon Lezion Shlomo Amar determined that they are Jewish. I call upon the government to listen to the former President of the Supreme Court Meir Shamgar and reach the right decision to bring the rest of Ethiopia’s Jews to Israel.”

‘Good deed to bring Falash Mura to Israel’

Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar wrote a letter on the subject to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

“I was sorry to hear that the Jewish identity of our Ethiopian brothers called Falash Mura is being doubted again…it is a hugely good deed to bring them to the land of Israel as Jews and save them from complete physical and emotional impurity… it is a huge honor for the nation of Israel and for the entire Israeli government,” wrote Rabbi Amar.

Knesset Member Michael Eitan (Likud) initiated a bill that passed in its initial reading (43 in favor vs. one against, Housing Minister Ze’ev Boim) in which all those waiting in camps will be brought to Israel as part of Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

“The real 60th celebrations will be bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel,” said Eitan at the protest.

“This country was established in order to gather Jews from the entire world and bring them to Israel. Since the establishment of the country, no government told Jews preparing to immigrate to Israel, not to immigrate.

“No Israeli government can come and say to people who are waiting to immigrate to Israel that we are closing the doors and we don’t care where you are.”

A few dozen protesters requested to deviate from the procession track and block a junction on the Begin Highway. A police force put them back on track and the procession continued as planned on Kaplan Street. Nine protesters were arrested.

The Falash Mura’s hope is also in the hands of State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss who asked to freeze the decision to halt the Falash Mura immigration to Israel until the special report he wrote on the issue comes to light.

He also decided to assess the issue as a result of a request made by the Knesset’s State Control Committee in November.