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Operation Yakhin was an operation to secretly emigrate Moroccan Jews to Israel, conducted by Israel's Mossad between November 1961 and spring 1964. About 97,000 left for Israel by plane and ship from Casablanca and Tangier via France and Italy.
The accession of Hassan II on 26 February 1961 enabled negotiations to begin on a secret agreement between Mossad's "Misgeret" division and the Moroccan authorities (principally Prince Moulay Ali and labour minister Abdelkader Benjelloun ), together with the American organisation HIAS. An economic arrangement was agreed between Israel and Morocco, with the agreement of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and King Hassan II of Morocco, whereby $500,000 would be paid as a downpayment, plus $100 per emigrant for the first 50,000 Moroccan Jews, and then, $250 per emigrant thereafter. [1] [2] [3] The operation also received important help from Francoist Spain. [4] However, some Jews settled in France, Canada and the United States instead of in Israel. Morocco received "indemnities" for the loss of the Jews. [5]
The operation was fronted by the US-based Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, who financed approximately $US50 million of costs. [6]
The operation's name Yachin was of Biblical origin, being the name of one of the two central pillars that supported the Holy Temple built in Jerusalem by King Solomon, and because Israel regarded immigration as a major pillar that supported the existence of the Jewish state. [7]
The Jewish community of Morocco spans nearly 2,000 years. On 14 May 1948 Sultan Muhammad V of Morocco delivered a speech in which he warned his country's Jews not to demonstrate "solidarity with the Zionist aggression," referring to the Declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel and the 1947–1949 Palestine war. [8] During the Anti-Jewish Riots in Oujda and Jerada June 7–8, 1948, 44 Jews were killed in the northeastern Moroccan towns of Oujda and Jerada. This event contributed to a dramatic upsurge in the departure of Jews from Morocco, most of them to Israel. If before Oujda and Jereda there had been a stream of Jews departing Morocco, afterward the immigration became even more extensive. During the next year, 18,000 of Morocco's 250,000 or so Jews left for Israel. Between 1948 and 1956, when emigration was prohibited, the number reached about 110,000. [9] At the time, Morocco was home to the largest Jewish community in North Africa. [10] Fears that Moroccan independence, which appeared increasingly likely through the early 1950s, would lead to persecution of the Jewish community led to an initial wave of migrants. From 1948 to 1951, approximately 28,000 Jews emigrated from Morocco to Israel. [11]
Upon Moroccan independence from French colonial rule in 1956, full rights and status were conferred to the Jewish population under the subsequent reign of Mohammed V. Nonetheless, immigration to Israel continued. In 1959, under pressure from the Arab League and facing the specter of the Jewish population's continued decline, emigration to Israel was prohibited, narrowing Jews' options for leaving the country. Despite retention efforts, Moroccan immigration to Israel rose to approximately 95,000 Jews for the period spanning 1952–1960. [11]
The formal prohibition on emigration remained in place only through February 1961. While the formal prohibition was ended, Mohammed V maintained a clear public preference that the Jewish community remain within Morocco and barred foreign action to facilitate or encourage emigration. [12] Beginning in 1960, Israeli authorities engaged Moroccan officials in discussions intended to negotiate the facilitation of Jewish immigration to Israel with official (or, at least semi-official) blessing. [13] Even with the removal of the prohibition on such movement, these talks continued. Eventually, this evolved into Operation Yakhin.
On 10 January 1961 a small boat called Egoz carrying 44 Jewish emigrants sank on the northern coast of Morocco. [14] This created a crisis both for the Moroccan authorities and for the foreign aid groups responsible for assisting the refugees.
In Kathy Wazana's 2013 film They Were Promised the Sea, Simon Levy, founder of the Moroccan Jewish Museum, noted that the trucks and planes that took the Jews away were Moroccan, which added to the trauma. [15] Susan Gilson Miller described the departure of the majority of Jews from Morocco as "monumental national tragedy." [15] [16]
Shas politician Ya'akov Margi, born in 1960, was brought to Israel during Operation Yachin in 1962.
In the 20th century, approximately 900000 Jews migrated, fled, or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries throughout Africa and Asia. Primarily a consequence of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the mass movement mainly transpired from 1948 to the early 1970s, with one final exodus of Iranian Jews occurring shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979–1980. An estimated 650000 (72%) of these Jews resettled in Israel.
Hassan II was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999.
Operation Moses was the covert evacuation of Ethiopian Jews from Sudan during a civil war that caused a famine in 1984. Originally called Gur Aryeh Yehuda by Israelis, the United Jewish Appeal changed the name to "Operation Moses".
Maghrebi Jews or North African Jews are ethnic Jews who had traditionally lived in the Maghreb region of North Africa under Arab rule during the Middle Ages. Established Jewish communities had existed in North Africa long before the arrival of Sephardi Jews, expelled from Portugal and Spain. Due to proximity, the term 'Maghrebi Jews' sometimes refers to Egyptian Jews as well, even though there are important cultural differences between the history of Egyptian and Maghrebi Jews. These Jews originating from North Africa constitute the second largest Jewish diaspora group.
Yerida is emigration by Jews from the State of Israel. Yerida is the opposite of aliyah, which is immigration by Jews to Israel. Zionists are generally critical of the act of yerida and the term is somewhat derogatory. The emigration of non-Jewish Israelis is not included in the term.
Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community. Before the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, there were about 265,000 Jews in the country, which gave Morocco the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world, but by 2017 only 2,000 or so remain. Jews in Morocco, originally speakers of Berber languages, Judeo-Moroccan Arabic or Judaeo-Spanish, were the first in the country to adopt the French language in the mid-19th century, and unlike the Muslim population French remains the main language of members of the Jewish community there.
From 1951 to 1952, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah airlifted between 120,000 and 130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel via Iran and Cyprus. The massive emigration of Iraqi Jews was among the most climactic events of the Jewish exodus from the Muslim World.
Oriental région or Oujda region is one of the twelve regions of Morocco, located in the north-eastern part of the country. It covers an area of 90,127 km² and has a population of 2,314,346 and is the easternmost region of Morocco.
HIAS is a Jewish American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees. It was established on November 27, 1881, originally to help the large number of Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States who had left Europe to escape antisemitic persecution and violence. In 1975, the State Department asked HIAS to aid in resettling 3,600 Vietnam refugees. Since that time, the organization continues to provide support for refugees of all nationalities, religions, and ethnic origins. The organization works with people whose lives and freedom are believed to be at risk due to war, persecution, or violence. HIAS has offices in the United States and across Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Since its inception, HIAS has helped resettle more than 4.5 million people.
Moroccan Jews are Jews who live in or are from Morocco. Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community dating to Roman times. Jews began immigrating to the region as early as 70 CE. They were later met by a second wave of migrants from the Iberian peninsula in the period which immediately preceded and followed the issuing of the 1492 Alhambra Decree, when Jews were expelled from Spain, and soon afterward, from Portugal. This second wave of immigrants changed Moroccan Jewry, which largely embraced the Andalusian Sephardic liturgy, to switch to a mostly Sephardic identity.
Operation Mural was a clandestine effort headed by Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, to facilitate the emigration of Jewish Moroccan children to Israel.
Mehdi Ben Barka was a Moroccan nationalist, Arab socialist, politician, revolutionary, anti-imperialist, head of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP) and secretary of the Tricontinental Conference. An opponent of French Imperialism and King Hassan II, he was "disappeared" in Paris in 1965.
Anti-Jewish riots occurred on June 7–8, 1948, in the towns of Oujda and Jerada, in the French protectorate of Morocco in response to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War ensuing the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14. The two towns—located near the border with Algeria—were departure points for Moroccan Jews seeking to migrate to Israel; at the time they were not permitted to do so from within Morocco. In the events, 47 Jews and one Frenchman were killed, many were injured, and property was damaged.
Egoz was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants from Morocco to Israel, at a time when the immigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel was illegal under Moroccan law. The ship operated undercover, and gained fame after sinking on 10 January 1961, which resulted in the loss of 46 lives, 44 of them immigrants.
The migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel has been made all over the centuries. Moroccan Jews in Israel have been the founders of many pioneer neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Tiberias and others.
The State of Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco formally established diplomatic relations in 2020, when both sides signed the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement in light of the Abraham Accords. While official ties had previously not existed due to the Arab–Israeli conflict, the two countries maintained a secretive bilateral relationship on a number of fronts following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. For many years, Moroccan king Hassan II facilitated a relationship with Israeli authorities, and these ties are considered to have been instrumental in stabilizing Morocco and striking down possible anti-monarchy threats within the country. The Israeli passport is accepted for entry into Morocco, with a visa granted on arrival. With the bilateral normalization agreement in December 2020, Morocco officially recognized Israeli statehood. Almost three years later, in July 2023, Israel officially recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Moroccan Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Moroccan Jewish communities who now reside within the state of Israel. The 2019 Israeli census counts 472,800 Jews born in Morocco or with a Moroccan-born father, although according to the World Federation of Moroccan Jewry, nearly one million Israeli Jews are Moroccan or of Moroccan descent, making them the second-largest community in the country.
Turkish Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Turkish Jewish communities, who now reside within the State of Israel. They number around 100,000-150,000.
David Amar (1920–2000) was a Moroccan businessman, leader of the Moroccan Jewish community, politician, and philanthropist.
The Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco (CCIM) is a central organization for Moroccan Jews established in 1947 during the French protectorate, in the context of the colonial government's post-World War II reforms attempting to quell the Jewish youth leadership's calls for democracy and self-expression.