Guwahati, April 24: A significant Israeli operation is now unfolding in India’s Northeast. Titled Operation Wings of Dawn, the initiative aims to relocate around 5,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community—many of them currently based in Manipur—to Israel.
On Thursday, the first batch of nearly 250 community members was airlifted out of India via Delhi, marking the beginning of the latest phase of the programme.
The group arrived on April 23 at Ben Gurion Airport as part of a joint operation led by Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and The Jewish Agency for Israel. Upon landing, they were received at a formal ceremony attended by Minister of Aliyah and Integration Ofir Sofer, Jewish Agency Chairman Doron Almog, World Zionist Organization Chairman Yaakov Hagoel, and Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef.
The effort follows a decision taken last year by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to facilitate the migration of roughly 4,600 Bnei Menashe from India.
This is part of a longer trajectory. Over the past two decades, close to 5,000 members of the community have already resettled in Israel under earlier government-backed initiatives, reflecting a sustained and phased migration process.
The Bnei Menashe, who are believed to trace their ancestry to one of the ancient Lost Tribes of Israel, are primarily settled in Mizoram and Manipur.
They live among Kuki-Chin and Mizo tribal communities, maintaining distinct cultural and religious practices that have shaped their identity over generations.
In the past twenty years alone, around 4,000 members of the community have migrated to Israel, underscoring the scale and continuity of efforts to relocate and integrate the group into Israeli society.
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