The elite soldiers whose family members aren’t allowed into Israel

Chalachew Mekonen is a member of the Falash Mura, descendants of Jewish tribes in Ethiopia, many of whom have joined the Ethiopian Jewish immigration wave in recent years and become naturalized Israelis.

Mekonen is also a decorated IDF veteran who received one of the army’s highest citations for valor for his service in last summer’s war in Gaza. Mekonen was commended for charging after Hamas commandos into one of their tunnels in an effort to retrieve the body of 23-year-old Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed in a raid that broke a temporary ceasefire between the sides.

But Mekonen’s service in the Givati Brigade’s elite reconnaissance unit, and his decorations, were not enough to ensure that his own brother could stand beside him at his award ceremony a few weeks ago. In an interview with Channel 10 news on Saturday, Mekonen offered one story of many in the saga of the Falash Mura’s efforts to immigrate to Israel. His brother, whose name was not given in the report, was not approved for immigration by the time Israeli authorities sealed the special immigration program for Falash Mura some two years ago.

Mekonen hadn’t seen his brother for 10 years, until comrades from his platoon raised money for him to fly to Ethiopia earlier this year.

“I only know him through pictures and through speaking on the phone,” Mekonen related. “We always tell him not to worry and that everything is okay, but the state is currently preventing us from bringing him [to Israel].”

Mekonen is not the only war veteran from the Falash Mura community to have family waiting in Ethiopia for the chance to emigrate to Israel. Argaw Tesfaye, a former special forces paratrooper who participated in two previous wars between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, said that the state has been promising his family to let his sister immigrate from Ethiopia for over a decade.

“The Interior Ministry said that [my sister] would arrive after us. A week turned into two weeks, which turned into a month, which turned into 11 years,” Tesfaye said.

The former paratrooper was due to speak with the media about the issue several months ago when he was still an active duty soldier, but, he said, the IDF ordered him not to.

“An army spokeswoman called me and told me that they do not want my story to get out and that they were going to help my family bring my sister to Israel through [backdoor channels],” Tesfaye said. “I have not heard from them since.”

The Interior Ministry has received some 4,000 applications from the Falash Mura community requesting permission for some 20,000-40,000 community members in Ethiopia to immigrate to Israel.

In response to the Channel 10 report, the ministry released a statement on Saturday night saying the cases of Mekonen’s and Tesfaye’s siblings would be reviewed immediately.

“We appreciate the service and contributions of the two soldiers to the nation’s defense, which cannot be ignored, and we will do everything possible to help them,” the statement read.

“To that end, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan has ordered that their requests be handled urgently, and they will be raised on Monday before the [ministry’s] Exceptions Committee. As they consider the requests, the members of the committee will take into account the contributions of the soldiers and will examine the applications favorably. Minister Erdan has clarified that those who serve in the IDF and risk their lives for the country and its people are entitled, he believes, to be united with their families.”

In the television report, Mekonen recalled that he had three goals before being drafted to the army: “to get a driver’s license, to get accepted into an elite unit, and to find a girlfriend.” He succeeded in all three, he noted.

“Now, I just need to bring my brother to Israel. That still hasn’t happened.”