| Part of a series on |
| Jewish exodus from the Muslim world |
|---|
 |
| Background |
| Antisemitism in the Arab world |
| Exodus by country |
| Remembrance |
| Related topics |
Operation Mural was a clandestine effort headed by Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, to facilitate the emigration of Jewish Moroccan children to Israel.
After gaining independence from France in 1956, the Moroccan government restricted Jewish emigration out of the country. In response, the Israeli government tasked Mossad with facilitating such emigration, using clandestine means. The Mossad initially organized illegal departures by boats, but that effort came to a halt in 1961 after the Egoz disaster, in which a ship carrying 44 immigrants capsized, drowning all passengers.
A new approach was then implemented: Working with the Swiss-based NGO Œuvre de secours aux enfants – the Organization for the Rescue of Children – an offer was made to the Moroccan government to take Moroccan children on a vacation in Switzerland. Mossad agents then worked in the Jewish community to find families interested in emigration. Once there, the Jewish children would be flown to Israel instead of returning to Morocco.
In 1961, David Littman volunteered for the mission. [1] Littman thought he was working for the Jewish Agency – years later it was revealed it was arranged with the assistance of the Mossad. [1] [2] From March–July 1961, posing with his wife and baby daughter as Christians, Littman ran the Casablanca office of the Geneva-based international NGO for children Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants de l'Afrique du Nord (OSSEAN). [2] [3] His code name was "Mural", [2] and the code name for the mission was "Operation Mural". After months of negotiation by Littman, the children left Morocco in five convoys under the guise of a supposed holiday in Switzerland (with Littman accompanying the last convoy), and from Switzerland went to Israel. [1] [2] [3] In all, he assisted in evacuating 530 Jewish children to Israel. [1] [2] The children's families joined them several years later. [4]
Meanwhile, Mossad agents Gad Shahar and Pinhas Katsir moved from house to house in Casablanca and persuaded the children's parents to allow their children to go to Israel without them with the risk that the Moroccan authorities might find out. [5] According to Shahar, "Throughout the entire length of the operation, he (Littman) himself did not know that he was working for the Mossad. He thought he was working for the Jewish Agency and that the masses of children and parents who were knocking at the door of his office in Casablanca had come to him in response to advertisements that had been published in the Moroccan press. In fact, hardly a single Jew had seen those notices. They were important only for the cover. The parents and children came to him as a result of our secret work, going from door to door and to reach the members of the community." These were the last of Moroccan immigrants in this country before the gates were closed to Jewish emigration. [6]
25th anniversary of Operation Mural in 1986 was held in Ashkelon Conference of the children who came. The conference brought together the couple with grown-up children Littman and Littman, won an award for his work. After months of negotiation by Littman with the authorities – including holidays for Muslim groups in August – the Jewish children left Morocco in five convoys from 26 June to 24 July under the guise of a supposed holiday in Switzerland (with Littman accompanying the last convoy), and from Switzerland went to Israel. [1] [2] [3] In all, Littman assisted in evacuating 530 Jewish children to Israel without the authorities realizing his goal. [1] [2] With the agreement of the Moroccan authorities he used special 'collective passports' and four months later this system was accepted by King Hassan II in an agreement for the exodus of 100,000 Jews from 1962 to 1964 in what became known as the Mossad's "Operation Yakhin".
An article about Operation Mural by Shmuel Segev was published in the magazine Maariv in 1984. [3] Littman's work was then recognized by President Chaim Herzog and later President Shimon Peres, who presented him with the Mimouna award in 1986. [2] [7]
On June 1, 2008, Israeli President Shimon Peres honored Littman at a Presidential residence special commemorative event with his wife and family and former key Mossad agents in attendance, [1] [3] In his brief address, Peres said:
Well, it is a belated ceremony, but it doesn't lose its value, because what you did stands on its own legs and is not affected by time.... [T]he saving of 530 children is, I imagine, the most moving experience a man can have. You say in Hebrew: 'The one who saves one life, is like the one that saved the life of the whole world.' But when you save 530 children, it's really unforgettable. I want to express, on behalf of our people, our nation, our recognition of your courage, your wisdom, of your determination under extremely difficult conditions. [3]
A year later the Israel Intelligence and Commemoration Center (MLM) honored Littman in a ceremony on 1 July 2009, when the "Hero of Silence" Order was conferred on him, he being the 9th person to receive it since 1985 ("An order of highest esteem and appreciation, awarded to David Gerald Littman: A clandestine warrior, who risked his life and who served a sacred cause of the People and of the State of Israel"). [2]
In March 2009, Le Soir Échos, a Casablanca newspaper, interviewed Littman and published the Operation Mural story. [2] It was the first time that Moroccans learned about the affair. [2]
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.
Yitzhak Shamir was an Israeli politician and the seventh prime minister of Israel, serving two terms. Before the establishment of the State of Israel, Shamir was a leader of the Zionist militant group Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang.
Michael Bar-Zohar is an Israeli historian, novelist and politician. He was a member of the Knesset on behalf of the Alignment and Labor Party in the 1980s and early 1990s.
David Gerald Littman was a British Jewish activist best known for organising the departure of Jewish children from Morocco when he was 28. He then worked as a lobbyist at the United Nations in Geneva and was also an historian. He was married to Bat Ye'or.
Meir Amit was an Israeli politician and cabinet minister. He served as the Chief Director and the head of global operations for Mossad from 1963 to 1968, before entering into politics and holding two ministerial positions. He was also widely regarded as the most successful intelligence officer and a leading political figure for Israel.
The Mossad LeAliyah Bet was a branch of the paramilitary organization Haganah in British Mandatory Palestine, and later the State of Israel, that operated to facilitate Jewish immigration to British Palestine. During the Mandate period, it was facilitating illegal immigration in violation of governmental British restrictions. It operated from 1938 until four years after the founding of the State of Israel in 1952. It was funded directly by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and was not subject to the control of the Jewish Agency who operated their own Aliyah department headed by Yitzhak Rafael.
Nativ, or officially Lishkat Hakesher or The Liaison Bureau, is an Israeli governmental liaison organization that maintained contact with Jews living in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War and encouraged aliyah, immigration to Israel.
Moshe Barazani, also Barzani was an Iraqi-born Kurdish Jew and a member of Lehi underground movement in pre-state Mandate Palestine during the Jewish insurgency in Palestine. He is most notable for having died by suicide with a hand grenade together with Meir Feinstein, another Jewish underground fighter under sentence of death, shortly before their scheduled executions, and is memorialized in Israel today as one of the Olei Hagardom.
The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, popularly known as Mossad, is the national intelligence agency of the State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman and Shin Bet.
Events in the year 1996 in Israel.
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.
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.
The David Amar Worldwide North Africa Jewish Heritage Center is a cultural centre and museum in Jerusalem, that opened in 2011.
David Amar (1920–2000) was a Moroccan businessman, leader of the Moroccan Jewish community, politician, and philanthropist.
Georges Loinger was a French soldier during World War II. During his time in the French Resistance, he helped hundreds of Jewish children escape from occupied France to Switzerland.
In 1999, the Intelligence Ministry of Iran arrested 13 Iranian Jews, accusing them of spying for Mossad. Security agents arrested 13 Jewish residents of the Iranian cities of Shiraz and Isfahan, including five merchants, a rabbi, two university professors, three teachers in private Hebrew schools, a kosher butcher and a 16-year-old boy, accusing them of spying for Israel. After a trial in Islamic Revolutionary Court, 10 were sentenced to 4–13 years in prison. The Israeli government and many U.S. Jewish groups and Jewish federations worldwide organized a pressure campaign globally against the Government of Iran, with demonstrations in front of Iranian embassies worldwide.