Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3377897.stm
On January 9, 2004 the BBC News reported, "The Israeli Government are to speed up the moving of the remaining 18,000 Ethiopian Jews to the Middle East. However, the emigration of the Falasha Mura community would not start next week as had earlier been reported, says Israel's foreign ministry. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom admitted at the end of a two-day Ethiopia visit, that the issue was a complex one. The Falasha Mura are the last remaining Jewish community in Ethiopia and have long been persecuted for their beliefs. The last mass emigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel was in 1991.There are around 80,000 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel, many of them airlifted there during times of crisis."