NEW WAVE OF UKRANIAN JEWISH IMMIGRANTS LAND IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE

Tel Aviv, 4 Rabiul Awwal 1436/26 December 2014 (MINA) – Some 226 Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, among then dozens of families fleeing fighting in eastern Ukraine, landed in Occupied Palestine.

The Jewish immigrants who arrived on Monday, the seventh day of Hanukkah, are the first in an expected group of over 400 Ukrainians who will arrive before the end of the year.

A second flight is scheduled to arrive on Dec. 30, Falastine News quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The flights are sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews along with Israel’s Ministry of Immigration and Absorption and in cooperation with The Jewish Agency, the Global Ezra movement and Nativ.

Zionists Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was among those who welcomed the immigrants in a ceremony. He was joined by the minister of immigration and absorption, Sofa Landver; IFCJ’s founder and president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein; the chairman of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky; and the director of the global Ezra movement, Danny Elinson.

With Monday’s flight, 5,134 new immigrants from Ukraine have arrived in Israel in 2014, a 174 percent increase over the previous year, according to Landver.

Israel earlier this month implemented special procedures to speed up the immigration process for people with Jewish origins from Ukraine’s conflict zones.

IFCJ said in a statement that it is providing grants of $1,000 for the adults and $500 for children for the Ukrainian refugrees, who come to the occupied Palestine.

The support is in addition to the absorption package and benefits that immigrants to Israel receives from the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption. (T/R05/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)