'Government must probe why immigrants were left starving'

Ethiopian advocacy group claims Beit Alpha residents don't feel part of Israeli society.

By RUTH EGLASH
Ethiopians Jews 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Ethiopians Jews 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The government must investigate why hundreds of new Ethiopian immigrants living in the Jewish Agency for Israel-run absorption center of Beit Alpha claim they were left to starve after National Insurance Institute benefits were not distributed to them in a timely manner, the Israel Association of Ethiopian Jews wrote Monday in a letter sent to Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog. "An emergency hearing needs to be held to look into this matter. New immigrants from Ethiopia, who are currently living in Beit Alpha, near Beit Shean, were crying out that they were starving," wrote IAEJ chairman Danny Admasu in the letter, which was copied to NII Director General Esther Dominissini. "These people claim that the NII did not pay their income support for months and that is why they were left without money for food. "They all talk about the social welfare problems they are experiencing and how, living isolated on Beit Alpha, they do not feel part of Israeli society at all," wrote Admasu. Roughly 700 olim from the absorption center spent the two nights prior to Yom Kippur camped on the streets outside the Prime Minister's Office in order to raise attention to their plight and to protest what they called "unacceptable" conditions at the absorption center. Due to the geographical location of Beit Alpha, the immigrants say they are not able to find employment to subsidize the government aid. Just hours before the Yom Kippur fast started, JAFI chairman Ze'ev Bielski and Immigrant Absorption Minister Erez Halfon succeeded in persuading the majority of the immigrants to return to Beit Alpha, but 33 people - suspicious of the promises made by the authorities - continued their protest through the fast and until Monday, when government representatives finally agreed to relocate them to an alternative absorption center. A spokeswoman for Herzog said that an investigation by the ministry found that some of the immigrants had indeed not received their benefits for months but had failed to notify those running the absorption center. A spokesman for the NII confirmed that as of Monday, all Beit Alpha residents had collected their benefits packages.