“Operation Moses” – Largest Secret Jewish Evacuation in History

One of the largest secret rescue missions in history to save Jews from Islamic terrorism took place in 1984.

In the 1980s, thousands of Ethiopian refugees escaped civil war and fled to UN camps in neighboring Sudan. The Islamic leaders of Sudan felt threatened by the massive increase of Christian and Jewish Ethiopians and began to threaten them with annihilation.

In response, Israel launched “Operation Moses,” to secretly help Africans escape.

Operation Moses was the brainchild of Richard Krieger, who was the Associate U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs. After seeing the horrendous persecution of Ethiopian Jews in the refugee camps in Sudan, Krieger came up with the idea to work with the Israeli Mossad to secretly airlift thousands of Jews right under the noses of the Islamic leaders.

Nothing like it had ever been done before and the mission seemed impossible, but after a secret Israeli cabinet meeting in November 1984, the decision was made to go forward with Operation Moses.

On November 21, 1984, the first airplane landed in the desert and loaded about 200 African Jews onboard. Over the next seven weeks, more than 30 flights packed from back to front flew from Sudan to Israel via Brussels. Israeli airplanes were banned from Sudan, so the Mossad covertly used Trans European Airways (TEA) because they were the most common airline out of Sudan to take Muslims on their Mecca pilgrimage. This kept immigration officers in Sudan from asking too many questions.

Richard Kreiger was able to convince several Sudanese leaders to help cover for the airlift.

Operation Moses ended prematurely as soon as news of it leaked to the Arab world, but not before 8,000 were transported to Israel. The Muslim world did not want the Ethiopian Jews to escape. They wanted them dead.

After Operation Moses was discovered, the persecution against the Jewish Ethiopians increased. Israel responded by secretly paying more than $26 million in bribe money to convince the dictator of Sudan to let the Ethiopians go. 500 Jews more were secretly evacuated in Operation Joshua and the remaining 14,324 Jews were rescued during Operation Solomon in 1991.

The hardship of Christians and Jews in Sudan is revealed in BTJ’s book SHACKLED, the true story of Mariam Ibraheem, a Christian mother who was sentenced to 100 lashes and death by hanging for refusing to accept Islam.

Shackled