Israel’s Supreme Court has frozen plans to bring some 3,000 Ethiopians who claim Jewish ancestry to Israel. The court was responding on Wednesday to a petition filed by the Israeli Immigration Policy Center NGO, which said in its filing that the Ethiopian Falash Mura, Ethiopian Jews whose ancestors converted to Christianity, are not Jews and should not be allowed to enter the country under the Law of Return. The Ethiopians at issue already have first-degree relatives living in Israel.
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The NGO says in its petition that many Ethiopian Jews already living in Israel object to the immigration of the Falash Mura because it leads some to question their Judaism and commitment to a traditional lifestyle.