Mizoram 'Jews' seek Israel visas

[Guest guest]

Mizo 'Jews' seek Israel visas

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3228054.stm

By Subir Bhaumik

BBC correspondent in Mizoram

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39512000/jpg/_39512292_jews2_203

..jpg

 

They are born Mizo and speak the language of this far north-east

Indian state bordering Burma - but they dream of a new life in

Israel.

 

 

Mizo "Jews" dream of life in Israel

There are nearly 5,000 people in Mizoram and the neighbouring state

of Manipur who call themselves Jews, and 800 of them have already

migrated to the Middle East.

 

Most live in Gaza and the West Bank - troubled areas compared to the

peace of Mizoram, now that the state has a settlement with rebels

after years of insurgency.

 

Ephraim Lalmingliana, who calls himself a Mizo Jew, says he is not

afraid of the violence in the West Bank or Gaza.

 

"I will go and settle there because I am Jew.

 

"Israel is my promised land and I long to go there. I have computer

skills and I will surely get a job there," he told BBC News Online.

 

We have no information about any ban on visas for Jews across the

world... In terms of visas, they Mizos are treated like other Indians

travelling to Israel

 

"Israel does not consider this community [in Mizoram] as Jewish," Ms

Michal Buch, a spokesperson of the Israeli embassy in the Indian

capital, Delhi, told BBC News Online.

 

"Some of them have already arrived in Israel on tourist visas. We

know that they underwent a formal conversion [to Judaism] there," she

said.

 

Those who call themselves Jews in Mizoram complain that it has become

very difficult to get visas for Israel from north-eastern India.

 

"None of us can go now. We want this ban to be lifted," says Ron

Sangliana, another young Mizo who calls himself a Jew.

 

 

Elizabeth Zodingliani (right) wants "restrictions" lifted

The Israeli embassy says there is no such ban.

 

"We have no information about any ban on visas for Jews across the

world," said Ms Buch.

 

"In terms of visas, they [Mizos who say they are Jews] are treated

like other Indians travelling to Israel," she added.

 

Mizoram's newest political party, the Ephraim Union, is lobbying hard

to have what it calls "visa restrictions" eased.

 

"We have approached the Prime Minister's Office and the Indian

foreign ministry to take this up with Israel, with whom Delhi enjoys

close ties now," says Elizabeth Zodiangliani, who edits a paper

reporting on Jewish issues.

 

Israel's Amishav organisation, a Jewish group which helps Jews from

across the world to settle in Israel, says it will help.

 

Convert to Judaism

 

In an e-mail interview with the BBC, the Amishav chief, Michael

Freund, said: "There is no reason these Jews from Mizoram and Manipur

should be denied a place in the Promised Land.

 

"They are good and devout Jews and very good people. They will be

assets for Israel."

 

 

Amishav delegates talk migration with Mizo hopefuls

Senior Amishav members have made several visits to Mizoram to

organise the Jews, and help them learn Hebrew by opening a school in

Aizawl, Mizoram's capital.

 

Scores of Mizos and Kukis, ethnic cousins speaking languages closely

akin to each other, say they started converting to the Jewish faith

in the mid-1980s after a local researcher claimed the Mizos as one of

the lost tribes of Israel.

 

But the state's powerful church, which holds great sway over the

lives of 750,000 Mizos - who are almost wholly Christian - dismisses

this theory.

 

Nevertheless, scores of Mizos - men and women, young and old - have

since converted to the Jewish faith, with many learning Hebrew

through correspondence courses.

 

Those that Amishav helped to migrate to Israel often found themselves

settled in areas the Arabs describe as Occupied Territories.

 

An Amishav official says that the new settlers chose to settle in

Gaza or the West Bank because land and living there is cheap.