Ethiopian Jews Demand Compensation For Israel’s Botched Rescue Attempt That Killed ThousandsShmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The
Organization for the Memory of Jews who perished in Sudan on their Way
to Zion, a group representing Ethiopian Jews who were brought to Israel
during 1984’s Operation Moses rescue, has filed a petition with Israel’s
High Court of Justice demanding that the state pay compensation to
those Jews because of the high number of their family members who died
after Israel leaked news of the rescue, causing Sudan’s leader, Jaafar
Nimeiry, to call a halt to the clandestine rescue flights.
According
to the petition, the rescue of Ethiopian Jews in the beginning of the
1980s was undertaken under the auspices of the state and the state is
therefore responsible for its sloppy execution, Ynet
reports.
Therefore the state should compensate the families for their losses,
and offer them support and assistance "in wake of the harsh scars they
carry with them as a result of the death of their loved ones on the way
to Israel."
The petition also demands that the state recognize
the relatives of the approximately 5,000 Ethiopian Jews who died on
their way to the camps, in the camps themselves, or trying to flee the
camps after the Israeli government’s leaks scuttled the rescue as
"persons imprisoned for their Zionism, martyrs or those who perished on
their way to Israel" – which would entitle them to state support.
It
took more than 20 years for the state to hold a formal memorial
ceremony for those Ethiopian Jews who perished during their escape to
Israel, and in 2007 it belatedly unveiled a monument on Mount Herzel in
their memory.
Ethiopian Jews walked for days, fleeing famine and
persecution, until they reached UN refugee camps in southern Sudan. The
camps, already overfilled with Ethiopians and other refugees fleeing
famine and war, were hellholes. One of the largest, Um Raquba, was
described by observers as hell on earth. Some of the refugees were
openly antisemitic and some were affiliated with various Islamic and PLO
factions.
The Jews had been told by Mossad agents sent to their
Ethiopian villages that the messiah awaited them in those Sudanese
refugee camps. Get there however you can, they were told, and he will
fly you on the wings of eagles to safety in Israel.
But what the Jews found in those camps was disease, famine, and often hatred.
As
Jewish babies began to succumb to dysentery and disease they were often
buried in the mud huts the Jewish (and all other) refugees lived in.
Staging a Jewish funeral in public was considered to be too dangerous.
Many mothers slept for months on the fresh-packed earth of their
children’s graves.
All the while, the Government of Israel
dragged its feet and delayed rescue. Some Ethiopian jews who served as
Mossad agents complained bitterly of the delays and the deaths and
torture the delays caused, but the government did not step up its
efforts. It was only after American Jews led by the American Association
for Ethiopian Jews and, to a lesser extent, by the North American
Jewish Students Network (the North American arm of the World Union of
Jewish Students) convinced the American government to act that a rescue
took shape and was launched under the auspices of the US and Israel.
But from the beginning, factions in the Israeli government worked to scuttle the rescue.
Yehuda
Dominitz, a senior official with the Nation Religious party and the
editor of a West Bank settler publication, published news of the airlift
despite the supposed government news blackout.
Then senior lay
leaders affiliated with various North American Jewish Federations tried
to leak the airlift to the news media, first to the New York Times and
the Boston Globe.
Both papers, realizing that publicizing an
ongoing airlift of this nature would almost certainly kill it, informed
senior US Department of State officials about the leaks. Those officials
asked both papers to hold the story until after the airlift was
complete. Both agreed to do so.
The Jewish Federations' leaders
then leaked the story to the Washington Jewish Week, which published the
story despite being warned that publication could end the airlift and
almost certainly would kill Jews.
Throughout the time these leaks
took place, the US Government was forced to up the amount of money it
was paying Sudan and its leader, Jaafar Nimeiry, to allow the rescue to
take place. It also had to calm Nimeiry, who became increasingly
agitated as the leaks increased.
Several weeks after the
Washington Jewish Week published its story on the ongoing airlift, the
World Zionist Organization’s leadership issued a press release
acknowledging the rescue was taking place. Shortly after, the co-leader
of Israel’s government, Shimon Peres spoke at a press conference. He
acknowledged the airlift was, in fact, taking place but urged the press
and others to keep the information low key.
Peres' press conference was televised worldwide with the knowledge and permission of the State of Israel.
The
WZO’s action followed by Peres’ press conference killed the airlift.
Nimeiry refused a US offer of even more money, citing among other things
the danger he and his government were now in for being seen as
cooperating with Zionists. He agreed to allow planes that were already
on their way to Sudan to land and take as many Jews out as they could
hold. But no more planes would be allowed to land after that.
It was the first Friday in January 1985. The last plane left Sudan later that weekend.
Thousands
of stranded Ethiopian Jews tried to walk back to Ethiopia in hopes that
they could rebuild their lives there. Already weakened and ill,
thousands died on the way. More died in the refugee camps.
While
those Jews suffered and died, Israel and the North American Jewish
Federations trumpeted the “Israeli” rescue of Ethiopian Jews, the first
time in history, they claimed, that Blacks had been taken out of
persecution in Africa to freedom elsewhere.
In March, the US arranged Operation Joshua, which rescued the remaining Jews in the refugee camps.
"Those
responsible have not internalized their responsibility for the failures
that led to a tragedy for the Ethiopian Jewish community attempting to
make it's dream come true," the petition to the High Court reportedly
notes.
"The tragedy is seared into the hearts of tens of
thousands relatives and survivors in both Israel and Ethiopia,” the
petition says.
It also reportedly notes that all attempts to achieve state recognition for the survivors have been unsuccessful.
Ethiopian Airlines has announced an expansion of its Asian network,
adding three new destinations: Ho Chi Minh City, Manila and Seoul, as of
June 18th, 2013.
