Wednesday's visit to a corner of northwestern Ethiopia by Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom has fuelled the hopes of a Jewish community living there of rejoining relatives air-lifted en masse to Israel more than a decade ago.
"I have been waiting to join my family in Israel for almost eight years now. When I heard of the visit of the foreign minister on the Ethiopian radio my hopes revived," Tena Bisha, one of the Felash Mura community, told reporters outside her home in the northern village of Waleka.
Shalom paid a brief and discreet visit to the community in Gondar province on Wednesday.
Tena Bisha's brother and aunt were among some 15,000 Felashas -- Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity -- flown from Ethiopia to Israel in 1991.
"Even though they have told me I would be joining them I am still here," she said, with tears in her eyes.
The community provides Tena Bisha and her son with 15 kg of teff, a staple food, every month.
"I have nothing here, I don't belong here any more. My place is with my family over there in Israel," she said.
Nearby, a synagogue lies in an advanced state of disrepair.
Ethiopian state television reported that Shalom visited "historical sites" in the area, but made no mention of the Jewish community, which numbers some 20,000, living in Addis Ababa, the capital, and Gondar province.
The community is invoking the "law of return" which allows all members of the Jewish diaspora to settle in Israel.
The extent of the Falash Mura's Jewishness is a topic of fierce debate among political and religious leaders in Israel, where many of the 100,000 or so who have settled over the last 20 years complain of discrimination.
Israel's government gave the green light in February last year for some 20,000 of those still in Ethiopia to immigrate.
But the Falash Mura in Israel have complained that their relatives' immigration is being blocked by the Israeli government, which says it wants guarantees that no more candidates will seek to immigrate by citing family ties.
During Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1991, about 35,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel.
Rubbing his hands to remove the clay he has been working, Asfaw Getenet said it was "mere chance" that prevented him joining the 1991 operation.
"I am waiting and hope to be there one day," he said.
Whereas Weleka was once home to some 5,000 Felashas, the village is now virtually empty, with just a few hundred people eking out a living making pots for the occasional tourist and children bear signs of malnutrition.
"I was hopeful in the past, but my hopes are diminishing and I am struggling to accept the reality I am in," said Beyen, 26, who lives alone in a mud house which is tilting to the ground.
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