Dozens of Ethiopian Jews (Falashmura) immigrated to Israel on Tuesday.
The 61 new olim are apparently the last large group eligible for immigration according to criteria set by the cabinet in 2003, though other Falashmura will still be able to make aliyah under a separate framework.
Last month, the Jewish Agency presented the Prime Minister's Office with a report month showing that all the Falashmura deemed eligible for aliyah in 1999 have either arrived in Israel or have been declared ineligible by the Interior Ministry.
About 2,000 people on the 1999 list were never checked for eligibility because no request was ever made to bring them to Israel.
The Falashmura were not entitled to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, which allows for the immigration of non-Jews under limited circumstances.
The Jewish Agency will hold a high-level meeting this week to determine how to proceed with the matter of Ethiopian immigration, now that its involvement in mass aliyah has ended.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered his office to conduct a reexamination of the Falashmura issue, and the check is underway.
According to a 2003 cabinet decision, the aliyah of all the Falashmura from Ethiopia was supposed to have been completed two months ago, but because of Olmert's request, the Jewish Agency has not yet finished its work in Ethiopia, and the last 290 people are still waiting to come to Israel.
The Agency still plans to bring immigrants from Ethiopia, but on a smaller scale.
The Jewish organizations acting on behalf of the Falashmura say there are another 8,700 people in Gondar in northern Ethiopia whose eligibility to immigrate to Israel has yet to be determined.
The Falashmura, descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, want to return to Judaism and come to Israel. After they were not allowed to immigrate in the 1991 Operation Solomon airlift, the Falashmura and various Jewish organizations have put pressure on the Israeli government to take in the prospective immigrants.
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