Operation Moses

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Operation Moses, (Hebrew: מבצע משה‎, Mivtza Moshe), named after the biblical figure Moses, was the covert removal of Ethiopian Jews (known as the "Beta Israel" community) from Sudan during a famine in 1984. The operation was a cooperative effort between the Israel Defense Forces, the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States embassy in Khartoum, mercenaries and Sudanese state security forces.

Begun November 21, 1984, it involved the air transport of some 8,000 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan directly to Israel, ending January 5, 1985. Thousands of Beta Israel had fled Ethiopia on foot for refugee camps in Sudan. It is estimated as many as 4,000 died during the trek. Sudan secretly allowed Israel to evacuate the refugees. Once the story broke in the media, Arab countries pressured Sudan to stop the airlift. Some 1,000 Ethiopian Jews were left behind. Most of them were evacuated later in the U.S.-led Operation Joshua. More than 1,000 so-called "orphans of circumstance" existed in Israel, children separated from their families still in Africa, until Operation Solomon completed the migration of the Ethiopian Jews.

This operation was the subject of an Israeli-French film titled Go, See, and Become, directed by Romanian born Radu Mihăileanu. The film is based on an Ethiopian Christian child whose mother forces him to be passed as a Jew so he can immigrate to Israel along with the Jews in order to escape famine that is looming in Ethiopia. The film went on to get the 2005 best film award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival.

1 See also
2 References
3 Further reading
4 External link

[edit] See also

[edit] References

1985: Israel ends major Ethiopian rescue mission. BBC. Retrieved on April 4, 2007.
Anastasia Toufexis (1985-01-21). Israel Stormy Skies for a Refugee Airlift. TIME. Retrieved on April 4, 2007.

[edit] Further reading

Israelbooks.com Alisa Poskanzer (2000). Ethiopian Exodus. (Gefen Publishing House)
Israelbooks.com Ricki Rosen (2006). Transformations: From Ethiopia to Israel.
Israelbooks.com Naomi Samuel (1999). The Moon is Bread. Gefen Publishing House.
Israelbooks.com Shmuel Yilma (1996). From Falasha to Freedom: An Ethiopian Jew's Journey to Jerusalem. Gefen Publishing House.
Israelbooks.com Baruch Meiri (2001). The Dream Behind Bars: The Story of the Prisoners of Zion from Ethiopia. Gefen Publishing House.