Ethiopia Jews protest Israeli government's emigration delays

Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered in the capital, Addis Ababa, to protest the Israeli government's decision not to allow all of them to emigrate to Israel, leaving their families divided between the two countries.

Representatives of the 8,000 Jews in Ethiopia urged the Ethiopian Jews living in Israel to think carefully before voting for Israel's ruling party, the Likud, over the delays in repatriation to Israel.

The Ethiopian Jews claim they are being blocked from emigrating to Israel, despite a 2015 pledge to allow them to do so by the Israeli government.

"I urge Ethiopian Jews to think twice before voting for the Likud party because the party's leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not keeping his words to help us emigrate to Israel," Neggousa Zemene Alemu, head coordinator of the Ethiopian Jews in the Ethiopian cities of Addis Ababa and Gondar, told The Associated Press Monday, as hundreds gathered at a synagogue in Addis Ababa on Monday.

"I don't believe the Israeli government has a financial problem to immigrate the remaining Ethiopian Jews back to Israel," he said.

"I rather think it is a political move or racism."
"We are being cheated like a child. This is not right."