Israel has brought in 240 members from the Bnei Menashe community in India as part of a controversial government plan to relocate around 6,000 members of the group by 2030 to support their long-term illegal settlement into Israeli society, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The Indian community members arrived on Thursday at the Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, where they were officially received.
The Post added that the group is the first in a series of controversial arrivals in the coming weeks, with around 600 immigrants set to arrive in three batches.
The broader initiative aims to relocate remaining members of the Bnei Menashe community living in India’s northeastern states of Mizoram and Manipur.
Under the plan, around 1,200 additional immigrants are expected to arrive by the end of 2026, with the full relocation of approximately 6,000 people projected by 2030.
Some of the earliest groups from this Indian community established their illegal settlements in locations such as Hebron in the Israel-occupied West Bank and in illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza prior to 2005.
Writing on X, India-based historian and author William Dalrymple said that the “Tibeto-Burmans from Mizoram in Northeast India who converted to Christianity in the 1940s then, inspired by a dream, began converting to Judaism in 1951, have more right to live in Israel than Palestinians whose DNA proves them actual descendants of Bronze Age Canaanites.”
According to Times of Israel, the community members were converted to Christianity by 19th-Century missionaries, arguing “the newcomers to Israel will need to convert to become Israeli citizens.”