Israel to lift bar on India’s N-E Jews

Jul 06, 2011 - HARINDER MISHRA |

JERUSALEM

Israel is again ready to welcome Jews from India’s Northeast, known as the Bnei Menashe, after a ministerial committee decided “in principle” to allow them in to undo the “historical injustice” they had suffered. Some 1,700 Bnei Menashe have already immigrated to Israel, but the process was halted in 2007 after questions were raised about their “Jewishness”.

The committee, led by foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, recently appointed an inter-ministerial team to prepare an action plan to bring all Bnei Menashe members, living in parts of Manipur and Mizoram, to Israel, Ynetnews reported.
“Those Bnei Menashe who have already immigrated have proved to be Jews and Zionists for all intents and purposes,” Mr Lieberman recently told the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth. The Bnei Menashe claim to be descendants of the tribe of Menashe, one of the 10 “lost tribes” of the kingdom of Israel. —PTI

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