Controversy in Israel
Interior Minister Avraham Poraz halted Bnei Menashe immigration to Israel in June 2003 following charges by Ofir Pines-Paz (Minister of Science and Technology, 2006) that the Bnei Menashe are “being cynically exploited for political purposes" because they are being settled in the Gaza Strip Gush Katif settlements (evacuated two years later) and in the West Bank ("Judea and Samaria"). Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a rabbinical judge dealing with the conversion of Bnei Menashe, says that the Knesset Absorption Committee's decision is one based on "ignorance, racism, and unjustifiable hate".
Rabbi Birnbaum says that the Bnei Menashe who move to Israel in fact suffer financially because their move is motivated by a desire to return to the Holy Land rather than material gain.
Michael Freund believes that the Bnei Menashe could help with Israel's demographic problem saying: "I believe that groups like the Bnei Menashe constitute a large, untapped demographic and spiritual reservoir for Israel and the Jewish people."
With the March 2005 decision by Rabbi Amar, the immigration issue seems to have been rendered moot. The Bnei Menashe's Orthodox conversion would in the future be conducted in India, and they would be recognized as wholly Jewish prior to their arrival in Israel. However, this solution is short-lived because the government of India, under pressure from Mizo-Kuki churches, objects formally to the conversion of its citizens.
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