The Jerusalem Post reports:
One hundred and thirty-nine former immigrants from Ethiopia sued the Jewish Agency and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee this week for more than NIS 5 million for allegedly refusing to pay them for their work at the refugee compound [in Addis Ababa] before the mass evacuation to Israel.…
The lawsuits focus on the year 1990, after Israel and Ethiopia re-established diplomatic relations and Israel re-opened its embassy in Addis Ababa. Thousands of Jews flocked to the Ethiopian capital and established a compound around the embassy, waiting to be taken to Israel.…
In 2000, a group of Ethiopians sued the state for similar damages and were granted NIS 30,000 each. The current plaintiffs are asking for NIS 34,000.