Every year, thousands of pilgrims from Ethiopia flock to Israel for Easter Sunday. But with a reeling nation in its second year of a civil war, Israel has reconsidered allowing pilgrims to enter.
This year, there are many signs of the war in Ethiopia is coming to a halt with truce talks from both the federal government and its opposition, TPLF. But last year, in the middle of a war that seemed to have no end in sight, when pilgrims landed in Israel for Easter, they stayed in the country way past Sunday. Some are still there till today.
Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority sent a letter to travel and tour companies stating that “these tourists will not head back” due to the instability in Ethiopia.
Following Israel’s announcement, Yossi Fatal, Head of the Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association wrote to the Interior Minister, Ayelet Shaked, describing the decision as “severely discriminatory.” However, according to Israeli authorities, the ban was due to the fear that Ethiopians may not return to their home after the pilgrimage, since the country is in turmoil.
In response to Fatal’s claims of discrimination against Ethiopians, Israeli authorities have responded by saying that “many tourist groups arriving from Ethiopia over past years have indeed not returned and remained in Israel illegally.”
While there is some truth behind the many Ethiopians that have remained in Israel illegally since last Easter, the ban would prevent all pilgrims from performing their yearly ritual. And Fatal makes this point clear in his letter to the interior minister.
“The State of Israel has an international responsibility when it comes to everything related to the freedom of religious worship at the holy sites of the three religions, which are located within the borders of Israel,” Fatal says. And he describes failing in this responsibility as “closing the gates of the State of Israel to tourists from Ethiopia who want to come to pray in the holy places of Christianity.”
Perhaps it was Fatal’s plea or Ethiopia’s uproar that caused the Israeli embassy, Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and other concerned parties to reconvene and reassess the ban.
It was concluded that the ban was not advantageous for either nation. According to the Ethiopian embassy in Israel, in the meeting with Gadi Ybarken, a member of the Israeli Parliament, the restriction was lifted – leaving just enough time for Ethiopians to make it by Easter.