The claim that Israel is a racist country, made by various anti-Israel organizations, can be debunked by one non-military operation carried out by Israel’s security services involving the rescue of Ethiopian Jews.
Jews lived in Ethiopia from before the destruction of the First Temple when the Babylonian conquerors of the Holy Land exiled ten tribes. One of those tribes, which called itself Beta Israel and many believe stems from the tribe of Dan, found its way to Ethiopia. Many were forced to convert to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries but the community continued to secretly observe many Jewish traditions and holidays and, for 2,500 years they dreamed and prayed for a return to Jerusalem.
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Starting in 1973, the Beta Israel suffered terribly under the dictator Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam. When Israel became aware of their plight, significant investigation and research was done leading to a rabbinic ruling that accepts the Ethiopian Jews as part of the Jewish nation, entitling them to emigrate to Israel under the Jewish state’s Law of Return. That paved the way for 8,000 Beta Israel to move to Israel. But then Mengistu forbade the Jews to leave Ethiopia. That led to the decision to covertly bring them to Israel.
Related reading: Unpacking Israel’s Law of Return
But how could Israel airlift thousands of people from a country which did not have a positive relationship with the Jewish state?
Enter the Mossad and the operation code named Operation Moses.
Mossad agents pretended to be businessmen from Switzerland and other European countries and rented an abandoned luxury holiday resort in the Sudanese village of Arous. The resort had been constructed by the Sudanese tourism ministry, but access roads and other infrastructure had never been built. The Israeli agents disguised themselves as employees of a fake tour company and renovated the resort, built access roads, and connected the resort to water and electricity. The resort, which was run almost entirely by Israelis, became very popular. Tourists from Europe alongside diplomats from the region enjoyed this vacation spot, which included scuba diving, wind surfing, and other water sports, without knowing that the Mossad was running it with an ulterior motive.
[The Netflix movie The Red Sea Diving Resort is loosely based on this Mossad operation.]
Contact was made with the Beta Israel community and thousands of them began to travel by foot through Ethiopia and the deserts of Sudan. They had to confront starvation, dehydration, and attacks from armed gangs as they tried to reach Sudanese refugee camps from where Israeli officials would rescue them. More than 4,000 died along the 2-week to one-month trek and in the horrible conditions once they reached the refugee camps.
As a first step, Mossad agents helped smuggle a few hundred Ethiopian Jews out of refugee camps in Sudan and loaded them onto dinghies which took them to Israeli ships and brought them to Israel via the Red Sea. Then, as a second step, Israel began flying the Ethiopian Jews to Israel once the agents built airstrips for transport planes not far from Arous. The major airlift then began between November 21, 1984 and January 5, 1985 when more than 8,000 Ethiopian Jews flew on 30 flights from the Khartoum airport. They flew on Trans European Airways to Brussels and then to Israel.
Related reading: The Forgotten Jews From Arab Lands
When Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres confirmed the airlift, the Sudanese leadership immediately stopped the flights but the US, which had been intimately involved in the operation, took the remaining close to 500 Jews on a US Air Force plane directly to Israel in what was called Operation Joshua.
In 1991, rebels seized control of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. Israel paid the government $26 million for the right to evacuate the Ethiopian Jews who found themselves in a desperate situation. Approval was granted and on May 24, Israel launched Operation Solomon in which Israel sent thirty-four planes – many with all their seats removed – in order to bring over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in a thirty-six hour period.
Today, over 140,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel. They have won beauty contests, been appointed judges, and have been elected to serve in the Knesset. While the community has faced many challenges in their adjustment to life in Israel, and while sadly there most certainly is racism in Israel like there is in any society, Israel is the only country in the history of the world that brought people with colored skin to their country not to be slaves but to live as free, equal citizens.
Racist? Just the opposite.
Countries around the world should learn from the expense and risk which Israel took to save the Ethiopian Jewish community.
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Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Government Press Office;
