(ISRAEL) — Israel’s government approved a five-year plan in November 2025 to bring the remaining Bnei Menashe community from India to Israel by 2030.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government set aside $27 million, or 90 million shekels for the first phase, to cover flights and a package of settlement support that includes Hebrew language training and temporary housing in absorption centers.
Funding also covers job placement, education support and formal religious conversion processes where required, under a program Israel said it will run directly with the Jewish Agency in coordination with Indian authorities.
The plan marks a shift from prior NGO-led efforts to move the community, which Israel describes as descendants of the biblical lost tribe of Manasseh from India’s Manipur and Mizoram states.
Officials set 2026 as the start of the first phase, with approximately 1,200 people slated to migrate in an initial batch drawn from a pool of ~3,000 screened applicants.
Priority goes to families separated between India and Israel, as the program begins moving people who have waited years to join relatives already living in the country.
Later phases run from 2027-2030, when Israel aims to bring the remaining ~4,600 people who Israel says are still in India.
The timeline targets the full arrival of all ~5,800 community members still in India, alongside ~5,000 already in Israel, under a plan that Israel says completes a decades-long migration effort.
Israel’s plan links the move to regional settlement policy in the north, directing most new arrivals to Nof Hagalil and other northern Galilee region cities.
Netanyahu framed the initiative in national terms, calling it an “important and Zionist” move to strengthen the Galilee.
The government tied the settlement strategy to demographic concerns in depopulated areas, while also citing Hezbollah security threats in the north.
Minister Ze’ev Elkin oversees the northern rehabilitation effort, with multiple ministries involved in support work including finance, justice, foreign affairs, housing and diaspora affairs.
Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer oversees the program, and officials said the effort runs alongside parallel immigration from other Jewish groups.
Planners said the support system will include skills assessments meant to place migrants in jobs ranging from carpentry trades to academic positions.
W.L. Hangshing, chair of the Bnei Menashe Council of India, said the process does not require DNA testing.
The Bnei Menashe describe themselves as descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, a link they trace back to dispersal after the 8th century BCE Assyrian conquest.
Israel’s description places the community within the broader Kuki-Zo ethnic group, and officials said the group preserved Jewish traditions for centuries.
That long-held identity sits at the center of Israel’s immigration pathway, because the plan formally recognizes their Jewish status and enables citizenship via aliyah (Hebrew for immigration to Israel).
For families, the government timetable intersects with personal deadlines shaped by work, age and the availability of relatives in Israel.
Hangshing, 68, is a retired Indian Revenue Service officer who has watched his own family’s migration unfold in stages.
His father, Aviel (Tongkhohao) Hangshing, migrated in 2014 and died in Israel in 2021, and Hangshing also has uncles already in Israel.
Even so, Hangshing has not migrated because he lacks first-degree relatives currently in Israel, a constraint that has left some families waiting while others moved.
Officials said the 2026 cohort draws from screened applicants, a figure Israel put at ~3,000, as authorities begin selecting people for flights and initial absorption.
The first phase budget covers travel and early integration costs, with language training designed to prepare arrivals for daily life and work.
Temporary housing in absorption centers forms another early step, giving new arrivals a place to live while placements for work and longer-term housing are arranged.
Alongside housing and training, the plan covers education support, which officials said aims to help families settle in communities where schools can absorb new students.
Religious conversion processes where required are included in the plan’s funding, reflecting differing personal histories inside a community that Israel says preserved Jewish traditions for centuries.
By shifting management to the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency, officials said the program creates a direct channel with Indian authorities for the movement of people from Manipur and Mizoram.
The goal, they said, is to complete the migration by 2030, bringing the remaining community members still in India to join those already living in Israel.
Settlement plans in the Galilee sit alongside the government’s focus on job matching, with officials saying skills assessments will guide placements across trades and professional roles.
For some families already in Israel, cost pressures have shaped settlement choices, pushing people away from expensive central areas.
Israel said some families opt for affordable areas near Gaza, Hebron, or the Negev for agricultural work, citing high Tel Aviv costs.
The plan’s northern focus, however, steers new arrivals toward Nof Hagalil and other northern Galilee region cities, part of a strategy to reinforce communities in areas the government describes as vulnerable to depopulation.
Officials connected that strategy to the security environment, citing Hezbollah security threats as they seek to strengthen population centers in the north.
Elkin’s role coordinating northern rehabilitation places the migration effort inside a broader government push that involves finance, justice, foreign affairs, housing and diaspora affairs.
Sofer’s oversight links those ministries to the Aliyah and Integration Ministry’s practical work of moving people through language training, absorption centers and job placement.
In Israel’s view, the plan completes a chapter of immigration that has already brought ~5,000 of the community to the country.
Another ~5,800 remain in India, officials said, and the 2026 flights for approximately 1,200 people aim to start closing that gap.
From 2027-2030, the government expects to bring the remaining ~4,600, working through later phases designed to finish the migration by 2030.
The program’s architects described it as a managed process that blends logistics—flights, housing, training and placements—with legal and religious steps tied to recognition and citizenship.
Hangshing’s account reflects the mix of bureaucracy and family ties that shapes who leaves first and who waits.
With his father already buried in Israel after dying in 2021, Hangshing’s story also reflects the way migration can span generations, even as the state sets a fixed timetable through 2030.
Netanyahu’s office placed the project within Israel’s Zionist narrative, while the settlement plan focuses on the Galilee and the state’s push to strengthen northern cities such as Nof Hagalil.
For the Bnei Menashe still in India, the plan sets a defined route—screening, selection, flights and early housing in absorption centers—toward citizenship through aliyah and a new life far from Manipur and Mizoram.
Benjamin Netanyahu Promises Bnei Menashe Migration by 2030, Eases Absorption Centers
Israel has approved a comprehensive five-year plan to bring nearly 6,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community from India to Israel. With a 90 million shekel budget, the project focuses on integration through language training and job placement. Most immigrants will be settled in northern Galilee cities like Nof Hagalil to address demographic concerns and strengthen regional security, completing a decades-long migration effort by 2030.
