Jerusalem, 17 July-(ANA)-Israel has sent envoys to Ethiopia to examine the applications of 3,000 Ethiopians who claim to be Jewish descendants and are in transit camps waiting to emigrate to Israel.
Some 100,000 Jews from Ethiopia already live in Israel. Many arrived in airlifts in the 1980s and 1990s in times of hunger and political strife in Ethiopia.
Thousands more Falash Mura people, who claim they were forced to convert to Christianity in Ethiopia, have also migrated in smaller groups, but Israel largely halted the flow about two years ago.
Some Israeli officials cited financial concern and questions about the applicants' Jewish origins as reasons for the halt.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai of the Orthodox Shas party has tried to renew the influx from Ethiopia in an effort to bring an estimated 8,700 people living in squalid transit camps for several years to the Jewish state, officials said.(Ana)
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