By Joe Spier
CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — In the Spring of 1991, my wife and I, touring Israel, together with a small group of Calgarians, found ourselves in a caravan camp on the outskirts of Mazkeret Batya, our sister city. There we encountered the most remarkable sight; Jews who before their very recent arrival in Israel had never lain in a proper bed, had never encountered running water, toilets or electricity, had never known sanitation or medicines. Upon our arrival, the camp’s smiling children ambushed us squealing the first Hebrew word they had learned, “mastik”. They wanted chewing gum. Fortunately, we had been forewarned and had plenty. This is the amazing story of how those chewing gum craving children, all of the people in the camp and scores of others, dark-skinned Jews from Ethiopia, 14,310 in all, were rescued and airlifted to Israel in less than a day and a half.
The Jews of Ethiopia are believed by some to be descendants of King Solomon. Cut off from the rest of the world for centuries, they thought they were the only Jews on the planet. In their land, enduring generations of hardship to sustain their Jewish identity, they practised their form of Judaism always believing they would someday return to Zion, the birthplace of their ancestors. They called themselves “Beta Israel” (“House of Israel”). Their neighbours derogatorily called them “Falashas” – the alien ones.
In the late 1980s, Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam was fighting an uprising by rebel forces, which was not going well. In order to stem the insurgent advances, the Ethiopian forces were sorely in need of arms. Both Russia and America turned Mengistu down and he was having little success elsewhere. Mengistu decided to turn to Israel and renewed diplomatic relations, which had earlier been severed. At the same time Israel’s Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir had authorized the ingathering of the balance of Beta Israel. Over 10,000 already lived in Israel. From Ethiopia’s perspective, the expectation was that Israel would supply them with arms and from Israel’s, Ethiopia would permit the mass emigration of its Jews to Israel.
Most of Ethiopia’s Jews lived in the northern province of Gondar, which by 1990 was in the war zone. The American Jewish relief agency, “American Association for Ethiopian Jews,” on the ground in Ethiopia, fearing that the Beta Israel were under imminent threat, sick and malnourished, convinced almost the entire Jewish community of Gondar to migrate to Ethiopia’s capital city of Addis Ababa, about 400 miles. In a matter of months, more than 20,000 left their homes. The Beta Israel were more than willing because they wanted to go to Zion. If they could get to Addis Ababa, they believed the Israelis would transport them to Jerusalem. However, it was not to be, not yet anyway.
The massive shipments of arms from the Israelis expected by Mengistu were not forthcoming as Israel was now under pressure from the Americans to withhold delivery. In addition, Israel did not wish to alienate the rebels who they now thought had a good chance of coming into power. Without the Israeli weapons, Ethiopia would not permit its Jews to leave, except for a few hundred each month under the guise of “family reunification”. The Beta Israel were pawns caught in this standoff. An agrarian population, now stuck in urban squalor in the slums of Addis Ababa, most were going nowhere. Many lived in hovels shared with animals, flies all around, susceptible to disease and big city crime, some for more than one year.
By May 1991, it became obvious that the rebel forces were near to victory and would soon capture Addis Ababa. If the Beta Israel were to be saved, an orderly transport over time was no longer possible. A hasty evacuation was the only option. Mengistu, the Ethiopian strongman, who by now was looking to his personal future and safety, would have to be bribed. And so “Operation Solomon” was implemented, a fitting name for the rescue of a people whose narrative traced their lineage back to King Solomon. Mengistu wanted $180 million, but in the end, $35 million would be settled upon and this sum would be paid by American Jewry.
In anticipation, Israel activated forty-nine absorption centers throughout the country to handle the expected new arrivals, reserved over 250 buses to transport the new immigrants from the airport and recruited hundreds of volunteers including nurses and social workers to accompany the new olim from the airport to the absorption centers.
Then on May 20, Mengistu, before taking the bribe, fled for his life into exile in Zimbabwe. The whole plan was in danger of unravelling. Addis Ababa was a lawless city as thirty thousand leaderless troops were roaming the city. Everyone had an AK-47. The Jews were in physical danger.
General Tesfaye Gebre Kidan was now acting President of Ethiopia. His reign would last exactly one week until May 28 when the rebels marched into Addis Ababa and seized power. On May 23, General Kidan, following intervention by U.S. President George H.W. Bush, said, “Let them all go.” The bribe would still have to be paid, and was, to an Ethiopian government bank account in New York. Who ended up with the money is not certain.
Through the night of Thursday May 23 and the early morning of Friday May 24, Israel set Operation Solomon in motion. As the mission was to take place on the Sabbath, Rabbis applied the law of Pikuach Nefesh, authorization to break Shabbat for the sake of saving a human life. Forty-one rescue aircraft were commandeered; Israeli Air Force Hercules C-130 transport planes and El Al Boeing jumbo jets, each with seats removed and rubber mats strewn on the floor to hold the maximum number of passengers. As well, every plane had all Israeli logos painted over. Two hundred young elite soldiers, some of Ethiopian origin, whose job would be to guard the Israeli aircraft and assist the refugees in Ethiopia, were assembled. As Ethiopia insisted that no soldiers be permitted on the mission, all were dressed as college students wearing jeans, sneakers and backpacks. Each backpack concealed a stripped down weapon. If trouble developed in Addis Ababa, a large ground force stood by in Israel ready to take control of the capital.
At the same time Ethiopian, American and Israeli aid workers in Addis Ababa prepared their end of the operation. The plan was that the Beta Israel, who would have to leave their meagre possessions behind, would make their way to the Israeli Embassy compound, there to be processed, with each given a numbered yellow sticker indicating the order of departure. With the children, the best place to affix the sticker was to the forehead. Hired buses and drivers would then drive the immigrants to the airport as each number was called. An Israeli soldier of Ethiopian origin would accompany each bus. The actual process was described as sometimes orderly and sometimes chaotic.
At 10 AM on Friday May 24, the first planes, two Hercules transports followed by two Boeings landed at Addis Ababa’s Bole Airport. On board were the Israeli soldiers and Foreign Ministry officials. For the next twenty-five and one-half hours, Israelis took over the airfield except the control tower which Ethiopian air traffic controllers refused to relinquish.
The first aircraft took off for Israel at 1:30 p.m. with nearly 400 people on board and after a three and one-half hour flight arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport, there to be met by hundreds of aid workers, IDF personnel and dignitaries. The children came out first tired and scared; many still had the yellow stickers affixed to their foreheads. A young man carried his elderly father on his shoulders. They both bent down and kissed Israeli soil. As the new olim disembarked, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir declared, “They are the remnants of a Jewish community that lasted for thousands of years who are now coming back to their country. They have come back to their homeland.”
About 1,000 Ethiopian Jews were moved to Bole Airport each hour. Planes would fill as soon as landed and take off without turning off their engines. Aircraft coming and going were passing each other with their wings almost touching. At one point, eight huge aircraft landed almost nose to tail, then took off overloaded. One El Al jumbo jet took off carrying 1,122 passengers packed on board; 1,087 were registered but dozens of children hid in their mother’s robes. Later the Guinness Book of World Records would acknowledge this as a record load for civil aviation.
Shortly before nightfall a problem occurred. Addis Ababa was subject to a 9 PM curfew and police were known to shoot offenders. The bus drivers refused to work during curfew. Bribes were handed out to the bus depot manager, to the bus drivers and to the police who were recruited to act as a motorcycle escort for each bus. That night there was no curfew. Shortly after midnight, the bus drivers and the police decided they were fatigued. More bribes perked them up.
By 9 a.m., Saturday May 25 the Israeli Embassy compound was emptied and the last bus departed for the airport. The final plane lifted off at 11:35 a.m. and reached Israel at 2:45 p.m. Operation Solomon brought 14,310 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in exactly thirty-four hours and four minutes from the time the first plane left Ben-Gurion Airport. This number included eight babies who were born during the mission. So ended one of the most complicated and emotional operations in the history of Israel.
As Jews all over the globe were preparing for the end of the Sabbath, they were greeted with the amazing news of Operation Solomon. There has never been a comparable undertaking conducted by any other country. Operation Solomon stands out as one of the great rescue missions of modern times. The significance of the Jewish State as the saviour of distressed Jews the world over was never more clearly demonstrated than in this exercise of humanity. The Beta Israel, after thousands of years of exile, returned to the land of Israel.
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Spier is a retired lawyer with a keen interest in Jewish history. You may contact him via joe.spier@sdjewishworld.com. Comments on this story should include the letter writer’s first and last name and his or her city and state of residence. (Writers from outside the U.S. may send city and country.)