May 25th 1999
10 Sivan 5759
JerusalemJewish Agency for Israel will send a special plane to Macedonia on Wednesday May 26th to bring a further 100 refugees to Israel.
Upon their arrival a special ceremony will be held at Ben Gurion Airport with the anticipated participation of outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Jerusalem: The Jewish Agency for Israel in coordination with the Israeli Foreign Ministry will bring a further 100 Kosovar refugees, at present at the Stankovic refugee camp outside Skopje, Macedonia, to Israel on Wednesday May 26th 1999. The refugees are coming to Israel following an Israeli cabinet decision of May 12th to absorb an additional group of Ethnic Albanian Kosovar refugees for a period of 6 months, further to the request of the USA Government.
This specially chartered ‘Arkia’ Boeing 737 plane, will depart from Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday for the Macedonian capital, Skopje, carrying with it 8 tons of humanitarian aid, which will be distributed at the refugee camps in the area. Until now JAFI has sent 10 aid flights and distributed more then 120 tons of aid to the refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia. In the evening the plane will return to Israel with the additional 100 refugees.
The group of refugees, about 19 families, were located during the past 3 days by a Jewish Agency team, in coordination with the Foreign Ministry. Among the refugees are a young woman in her twenties, Arta Kuqi, whose parents and two brothers arrived with first group of refugees, now at Ma’agan Michael, and
Yusuf Byraktari, whose wife and five children also came with the first group.
Upon their arrival a special reception will be held in the Immigration Hall at Ben Gurion Airport. Participating in the ceremony will be Minister of Absorption, Yuli Edelstein, Co-chairmen of the Immigration Committee of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Chaim Chesler and Allan Shulman, Director General of the Jewish Agency for Israel , Dr. Shimshon Shoshani, the Albanian Ambassador to Israel, Dashno Dervishi, and Member of the Zionist Executive, Mr. Eli Eyal.
The Immigration Department of the Jewish Agency for Israel will house the refugees at the guest house of Kibbutz Keramim, in the South. The status of the refugees will be that of tourists and their stay will be coordinated by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Ministry of Absorption in cooperation with the Ministries of Interior, Health, Education and Social Services.
The ‘Arkia’ flight KSV 4030 is expected to land at 3:00 PM. Journalists should be at ‘Sha’ar Ovdim’ (Ovdim gate) in the departure hall at 1:00 PM at Ben Gurion Airport.
pictures courtesy of Nir Kafri - Isranet
For further information contact:
Michael Jankelowitz
Liaison to Foreign Press and Media, JAFI
Tel: 972-2-6202780
Fax: 972-2-6202708
Mobile: 972-51-601706