AIZAWL (India): Tribal Jews in India’s remote northeast said on Tuesday they would press ahead with their plans to emigrate to Israel despite the closure of their intended settlement in the Gaza Strip.

“We were planning to go to Gaza. Now we do not know for sure where the Israeli government will put us up but we are determined to migrate,” said Y. Ralte, a youth from Mizoram state who is part of the group preparing to leave for Israel next month.

Around 800 tribespeople from Mizoram and Manipur states who emigrated to Israel in the past decade have been uprooted from their Gaza settlements under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s decision to end Israel’s 38-year old occupation of the Palestinian territory.

“Nobody can stop us from migrating to our holy land,” Rebecca, a young hairdresser in Aizawl, capital of mainly Christian Mizoram, told AFP.

“The evacuation issue in the Gaza Strip will not scare us,” added Rebecca, who uses just one name.

“The happenings in Israel have no relation to the process of migration of people from here to their Promised Land,” said Rabbi Hannoch Avizedek, an Israeli preacher and representative of the Chief Rabbinate in the northeast.

“A small group of people from Mizoram are all set to leave for Israel next month,” he said but declined to disclose numbers.

“We are praying for all our people in the Gaza area,” said Peer Tlau, a Mizo tribal Jew.

“All the Jews from Mizoram and Manipur are reported to be safe. Some of them were put up in hotels in Jerusalem or in other temporary shelters elsewhere after being evicted from Gaza,” Rabbi Avizedek told AFP.

“There is no need for any worry as the Israeli government will take care of them and provide alternative shelters.”

The Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic Jews, Shlomo Amar, announced in Jerusalem in March that members of the 6,000-strong Bnei Menashe tribe in Mizoram and Manipur were descendants of ancient Israelites or one of the Biblical 10 “Lost Tribes.”

The recognition by Israel followed applications from locals here seeking to migrate to Israel, which they see as their right to return to their promised land.

—AFP