Minister: Israel could see 90,000 new immigrants by the end of 2021

Israel’s newly appointed Immigration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said on Wednesday that 90,000 new immigrants could arrive in Israel in the next 18 months, a figure higher than initial estimates published in early June by the Jewish Agency.

Speaking before the Israel Parliament’s (Knesset) Immigration, Integration and Diaspora Committee, Tamano-Shata said that she had instructed her ministry to develop a five-year plan to promote “aliyah of the whole world”.

Tamano-Shata,  Israel’s first Ethiopia-born minister, also added that she intended to bring in all the remaining members of the Ethiopian community of Falash Mura, denouncing the “blatant injustices” committed against the group over the years.

“It is not in our religion to separate parents from their children. We will end the camps in Ethiopia, we will bring all those who are waiting,” the 38-year-old minister vowed.

“This must be a national priority,” she insisted. “I get letters every day about it”.

Various organizations, including the Jewish Agency, have raised concerns over a sharp increase in the immigration of Jewish people from across the world to Israel citing fears stemming from the COVID-19 epidemic.