Around 250 Indians, who claim descent from a biblical tribe, arrived in Israel on Thursday, while millions of Palestinians worldwide still lack the right to return to their homeland amid ongoing displacement in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
They are part of the “Bnei Menashe” (“Sons of Manasseh”) community and are the first group to arrive since the Israeli government decided in November to fund the immigration of about 4,600 members from Manipur in northeast India.
The organization Shavei Israel, which works to trace descendants of the so-called “lost tribes of Israel,” said around 4,000 Bnei Menashe have already immigrated to Israel since the 1990s, while about 7,000 others remain in India.
