More than 200 North American Jews arrived in Israel on August 5

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, August 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - One of Israel's chief rabbis revealed that he had traveled to India to examine the possibility of allowing thousands of members of a tribe which claims to be Jewish to immigrate to the Jewish state.

Shlomo Amar, head of the country's Sephardic Jews and the leading authority on conversions, said more information was needed about the Bnei Mannasse tribe before a decision is made on whether to grant them “aliyah”, the right of all Jews to immigrate to Israel , reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) Tuesday, August 11.

“It is not easy to decide who is Jewish,” the rabbi told army radio after returning from his trip last week to the northeastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, where he was accompanied by a delegation of other rabbis.

Amar added that it was possible that the tribal members would be given “the benefit of the doubt”, which entitles them to the “right of return”, and declared Jewish.

The tribal members had told the delegation of rabbis that they are the descendants of one of the so-called 10 lost tribes of Israel , AFP said.

Israel encourages Jews worldwide to immigrate to Israel as it continues to expand its settlement activities on occupied Palestinian lands.

On Sunday, August 8, the Israeli government has approved the construction of hundreds of new houses in one of the largest and most controversial settlements in the West Bank .

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has given the go-ahead for the building of new housing units on the western fringes of the Ariel settlement, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing Israeli sources.

On August 2, Israel gave a "new push" to its settlement program in defiance of the internationally-backed roadmap peace plan by approving the construction of 600 new settlements in the West Bank .

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz have both given the green light to the building work in Maale Adumim, the largest of the West Bank settlements.

‘No Doubt’

Rabbi Eliahou Birenbaum, who accompanied Amar to India , said that “there was no doubt that they are part of the Jewish people”.  

“Their oral tradition, their customs dating back for centuries, the way in which they celebrate Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest), their synagogues as well as the written testimony of other Indians living around them, prove without doubt that they are of Jewish descendance."

The Bnei Menashe, who number about 6,000, were originally animists who were converted to Christianity by British missionaries in the 19th century, according to the Associated Press (AP) news agency.

In 1953, a tribal leader named Mlanchala had a dream in which his people would return to Israel . The tribe then adopted Jewish traditions, AP said.

However, their links to the Jewish people could not be proved, so they were not eligible to immigrate to Israel under Israeli law, which gives Jews the right to automatic citizenship.

Demographic Battle

Israel encourages Jews worldwide to leave their homelands and immigrate to it in what appeared to be a demographic battle with the Palestinians, the indigenous people of what is now Israel .

Israeli government statistics show the number of new immigrants dropped by nearly two-thirds between the years 2000 and 2003, from 61,000 to less than 25,000.

On August 5, more than 200 North American Jews arrived in Israel , marking what Israel hopes will be a revival of immigration from the West.

In July, the Jewish Agency also brought 500 immigrants from North America .

On July 13, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged all French Jews to leave France “as early as possible” in protest at what he called “soaring anti-Semitism”.

On April 18, 1948 , Palestinian Tiberius was occupied by Zionist Menachem Begin's Irgun group, putting its 5,500 Palestinian residents in flight.

On April 22, Haifa fell to the Jewish mobs and 70,000 Palestinians fled.

Irgun began bombarding civilian sectors of the Palestinian city of Jaffa - the largest city in Palestine at that time - on April 25, terrifying the 750,000 inhabitants into panicky flight.

On May 14, the day before the creation of Israel on the rubble of Palestine and bodies of the Palestinians, the city of Jaffa completely surrendered to the much better-equipped Zionist gangs and only about 4,500 of its population remained.

The May 15 was dubbed by the Palestinians as the “Nakba Day”, which every year comes as a bitter memory of the dilemma of a whole people still struggling to regain their right to exist on the world map.

The number of Palestinian refugees hit five million since the creation of Israel , which triggered a mass exodus from 531 Palestinian cities and villages, according to latest statistics by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).