At a time when the occupation state has witnessed a significant increase in emigration abroad over the past two years, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is seeking to bring in 5,000 Indians from a sect known as “Bnei Menashe”, as part of a new plan called “The Eleventh Million”. Through this plan, “Tel Aviv” aims to bring an additional one million Jews from around the world over the next ten years, according to a report by the Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom.
According to the newspaper, this initiative comes at a time when the occupation state is facing a growing need to strengthen its human resources, in addition to its desire to restore confidence and ties with the Jews of the world. It stated that, according to the proponents of this vision, millions of Jews currently live in places where Jewish identity is under strain, partly due to the rise of what is now called “antisemitism” and political shifts around the world.
“An Important and Zionist Decision”
“Bnei Menashe” is a tribe living in the northeastern region of India. The Israeli occupation government, during its meeting on 23 November 2025, approved a decision introduced by Netanyahu and Minister of Immigration and Absorption Ofir Sofer, in coordination with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Minister Zeev Elkin, stipulating the transfer of all members of this tribe, whose number stands at 5,800, to the occupied Palestinian territories by 2030, according to The Jerusalem Post. The occupation prime minister described the decision as “important and Zionist”, saying that it would “strengthen northern Israel”.
Resettlement Instead of Those Who Fled the Galilee
This ethnic group is expected to move from the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur to the Galilee region in the north of the occupied Palestinian territories in stages. This area has been heavily affected during the war with Hezbollah, with tens of thousands of settlers leaving over recent years. In the past, Bnei Menashe members were “resettled” in the West Bank, but today, the remaining members will be sent to towns in the northern part of the occupation state, near the city of Nazareth in the Galilee region, which lies around 105 km from Jerusalem, according to ThePrint.
A Plan Coordinated with India
The first group of Bnei Menashe, numbering 1,200 people, is scheduled to arrive next year, 2026. The institutions responsible for their absorption inside the occupation state will provide initial financial support, Hebrew-language instruction, vocational guidance, temporary housing, and social programmes to help new arrivals settle. The government expects to allocate around 23.8 million euros (about 27.4 million US dollars) to absorb this wave, which follows earlier groups of Bnei Menashe who migrated to the occupation state over the past two decades, numbering around 4,000. Reports confirm that the plan was jointly coordinated with the Indian government.
“Forgery of Lineage”
The Hebrew newspaper Haaretz raised suspicions around the “Menashe” process, as it was called, in March 2014, when it examined the decisions and religious rulings that granted the Bnei Menashe the status of “Seed of Israel” and allowed hundreds of them to flow into Palestine. The process relied on a 2005 ruling by former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. At the time, media outlets portrayed the issue as if one of the lost Jewish tribes was returning since the Assyrian era more than twenty-seven centuries ago.
However, the Israeli occupation government headed by Ariel Sharon did not permit the Bnei Menashe tribe to migrate to the occupied Palestinian territories. It was Michael Freund, founder of the “Shavei Israel” organisation, who convinced Netanyahu’s government to open the door for their migration. His organisation was tasked with arranging the procedures and facilitating their arrival, conversion, and settlement in Palestine, contrary to the usual practice of assigning such missions to the Jewish Agency.
Haaretz revealed at the time a document from the Interior Ministry stating that Rabbi Shlomo Amar’s ruling clearly declared, contrary to media claims, that the Bnei Menashe are not “Seed of Israel”, and that there is no proof their origins are Jewish. After the newspaper questioned Rabbi Amar, he confirmed that in his ruling he considered them not to be “Seed of Israel”, but noted that there is what he described as a “social affinity” between the Bnei Menashe and the Jewish people and similarities in customs and traditions, despite DNA tests performed on tribe members providing no evidence that their origins trace back to the Middle East.
Manipulating Laws to Attract Migrants
The Israeli “Law of Return”, issued in 1950, grants Jews around the world the right to migrate to the occupied territories and obtain Israeli citizenship, with authorities facilitating their migration. The law also applies to those born to Jewish mothers. However, an amendment in 1970 allowed those defined as “Seed of Israel” to migrate and receive citizenship. This definition applies to individuals who can prove, with evidence, that their lineage connects to Jewish ancestors even if from distant generations.
In 2012, Netanyahu’s government made a decision described as unprecedented, allowing large numbers of non-Jews, according to its religious definition, to migrate to Palestine and convert to Judaism upon arrival. The following year, Netanyahu’s government made another decision allowing even larger numbers to migrate, raising the number of Bnei Menashe tribe members holding Israeli citizenship and living in Palestine to more than 2,500.
Fleeing to “Israel” to Escape Poverty
Most Jews in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur were born to Christian parents, yet they practise several religious rituals such as placing Torah inscriptions at their doorways or wearing the skullcap during prayer. Rabbis who visited India oversaw their conversion procedures. Members of the Bnei Menashe tribe claim they descend from a lost Jewish lineage exiled to India in the eighth century BCE after the Babylonian captivity. Over the years, they adopted other religions. Many Israelis nonetheless doubt the Jewishness of these Indians and believe their goal is to escape the poverty they live in, according to a report by Radio Monte Carlo International.
Mass Jewish migration from India to the occupied territories began in 1948 and continued in the years that followed. Today, their number stands at one hundred thousand migrants. Most abandoned their Indian names and customs in an attempt to assimilate in the occupation state. Indians also serve in the Israeli army, particularly in the Kfir Brigade, also known as Brigade 900, which is stationed in the West Bank and is infamous for its repressive practices against residents and its abuse of Palestinians. Statistics indicate that recruits from this brigade are responsible for 70 percent of arrests.
Jews Abroad to Netanyahu: “Goodbye, Zionists”
The occupation state repeatedly calls on Jews around the world to migrate to it under the pretext that it is the “homeland of the Jews”. The most recent call came from ministers in Netanyahu’s government, urging Jews in New York to migrate after the election of Zahran Mamdani as the first Muslim mayor on 5 November this month. The occupation government announced what it called a “comprehensive tax reform”, granting new immigrants and returning residents a full exemption from income tax for two years after moving to “Israel”. Returning residents who lived abroad for ten years or more, as well as new immigrants arriving in 2026, will not pay any tax inside the occupation state during those two years.
The United States-based Torah Judaism group described the calls as “ridiculous propaganda”, stating: “Goodbye, Zionists. They selfishly expect New York Jews to flee to Israel because they oppose the city’s elected mayor. We Jews are merely tools used by Israel to serve its own agendas”.
A “Negative Migration Balance”
Israel uses a specific method to calculate its migration balance by measuring the difference between the number of people arriving to live in Israel and the number leaving it. At the end of 2023, the balance became negative with a decrease of 18,200 people. In the previous year, 82,700 Israelis left the occupation state while 23,800 returned, meaning the net number of Israelis emigrating exceeds those returning by 58,900. In October 2024, one year after the war, a record was set, with the migration balance being negative by more than ten thousand Israelis.
