Because the sanctity of life is of primary concern in Judaism, Jews throughout their history have come to the rescue of their brethren - in whatever means they were able to effect. This imperative to save a fellow Jew began at the very beginning of Bible times when Abraham rescued his nephew Lot. [Genesis 14:14] .
Ethiopian Jews, also known as Beta Israel (House of Israel), are believed to have emigrated from ancient Israel to Ethiopia between the 1st and 6th centuries. Although many of their members were forcibly converted to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries, Ethiopian Jewry continued to secretly observe many Jewish traditions and holidays, and remained steadfast in their Jewish faith. Like thousands of Jews around the world, the Ethiopian Jewish community prayed for centuries to return to the Land of Israel.
From 1983–1985, Ethiopia suffered a devastating famine. In desperation, thousands of Ethiopians—Jews among them—fled to neighboring Sudan. Entire families, including the elderly, the infirm and young children, made the trip. To make matters worse for the Jews, Ethiopia was targeting Jewish inhabitants with government-sponsored persecution. Over 1,700 refugees died en route, victims of bandits and wild animals. Those who survived the 400-mile [644-km] trek were housed in wretched refugee camps just inside the Sudanese border, suffering hunger and disease. Almost 4,000 more refugees died in the camps.
The Israeli government realized the plight of their Ethiopian brethren and authorized “Operation Brothers”, the first secret mission designed to bring Ethiopian Jewish refugees to Israel. It would have to be top secret, for Sudan and Israel were longtime enemies.
Israeli operatives, posing as Swiss businessmen, purchased an abandoned resort on the Sudanese seacoast and began the process of fixing up the place. They then advertised the resort in travel agencies across Europe. The holiday village became known as Sudan’s premier recreation centre, and hundreds of guests descended on the resort throughout its 6-year operation – never suspecting that it was the front for the Mossad (Institute for intelligence, special operations and counterterrorism).
The agents, former Israeli naval commandos, posed as scuba diving and windsurfing instructors, while female agents were tasked with managing the resort. The rest of the staff were hired locally, including “stealing” a chef from a Sudanese hotel!
The trips to the Sudanese refugee camps were arduous, made under cover of darkness. The Mossad hired men inside the camps to seek out the Jewish refugees, and gather them for pickup at a rendezvous point. They were then transported by truck for two nights over rough roads to the resort, put into dinghies and ferried to an Israeli ship waiting outside Sudan waters.
One night, while the dinghies were being loaded with refugees, a patrol of Sudanese soldiers started shooting at the group, believing they were smugglers. Israeli “chutzpah” was put to the test. One of the operatives shouted angrily to the soldiers that they were taking boatloads of tourists on a nighttime diving trip – how dare the patrol shoot at them! The confused soldiers even apologized for their mistake.
Since the marine rescues were becoming too dangerous, the Mossad found an abandoned airstrip in the desert large enough to land a Hercules transport plane - to airlift the refugees out of the country. Most of the Ethiopian Jewish refugees had never seen a truck before let alone a plane! However, the belief that one day they would go to Jerusalem “on eagles wings” [Exodus 19:4 ], encouraged them to climb aboard the giant, featherless bird bound for Israel.
Operation Brothers came to a sudden end in the spring of 1985 when its cover was blown. Overnight, the “Swiss staff” disappeared from the resort and were extracted by a Hercules aircraft deep in the desert. Other operatives, stranded in Khartoum on a similar mission, were “mailed” to Israel in diplomatic mail crates.
Over the course of Operation Brothers, more than 6,000 Ethiopian Jews had been rescued.
For more than 30 years, “Operation Brothers” remained virtually unknown. Then in 2007, one of the Mossad operatives who took part in the operation, Gad Shimron, brought the story to light in his book: “Mossad Exodus”. It has recently been made into a film.
The magnitude of the mission emphasized the bravery of the men and women tasked with an impossible assignment to save their “brothers.” However, according to Shimron, it was the silent, stoic Ethiopian Jews who showed the greatest courage…….
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