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Israelis welcome their Georgian Jewish relatives upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on August 12, 2008 after being evacuated from Georgia with the help of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Jewish Agency.
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JERUSALEM-TBILISI (EJP)---One of the El Al planes that flew to Georgia to rescue Israeli tourists and businessmen stranded in the war-torn country landed at Tbilisi International Airport on Tuesday afternoon and was due to take off for Ben Gurion with some 150 passengers on board, the Jerusalem Post said, reported.
A second plane of the Israeli airline and a Georgian Airways flight were set to fly the remaining Israelis home on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government has started preparing for emergency immigration of Jews from Georgia, even though only some 60 Georgian Jews have so far filled out immigration papers following the fighting that began last Thursday.
Since the outbreak of the crisis, the Jewish Agency for Israel’s office in Tbilisi has been working to bring Jews to safety from the areas of combat and is expediting the process of immigration to Israel for Georgian Jews
Israel's Immigration and Absorption Minister Eli Aflalo convened an emergency meeting Monday at which it was decided that Georgian Jews desirous of making aliya would be eligible for an expanded immigration package reserved for emergency immigration and immigration of entire communities.
The Jewish Agency for Israel, through its office in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, coordinated the evacuation of 200 Jews from the city of Gori, adjacent to the war-torn region of South Ossetia, to safety in the Georgian capital.
Over the weekend, the Jewish Agency has received 60 new applications for immigration and on Sunday eight new immigrants from Georgia arrived at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Michael Jankelowitz, the agency’s spokesman, said.
The Jewish Agency director for the former Soviet Union has been dispatched to Georgia to provide assistance to the Jewish community. The director, Alex Katz, is currently in Gori, in an attempt to convince the three remaining Jewish families who did not evacuate on Saturday, to leave the city.
There are an estimated 12,000 Jews living today in Georgia, the most of them in the capital city of Tbilisi and its environs.
The Jewish Agency is making available opportunities for Jewish youth from Georgia interested in Jewish Agency programs in Israel. It is offering children and young adults to come to Israel immediately for 10 days of summer camp and has opened places in its Sela program where high school students from the former Soviet Union study in Israel.
"The Jewish Agency, as a bridge between the State of Israel and the Jewish people in the Diaspora, will continue to do what it takes to assist Jewish communities in times of crisis," said Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski.
"This is a moment of pride for the Jewish Agency family and a moment that reinforces the sense of mutual responsibility between us, as Jews living in Israel, and Jewish people wherever they live in the world."