Operation Magic Carpet (Yemen)

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Yemeni Jews on a plane to Israel

Operation Magic Carpet is a well-known code name for the transport of about 49,000 carried out under the official name of Operation On Wings of Eagles between June 1949 and September 1950 and initially kept secret Yemeni Jews in the new state of Israel . The transport was carried out with around 180 flights by British and American transport planes between Aden and Israel, the secret operation only became known to the public several months after its end. Sometimes this transport is referred to as Operation Messiah's Coming (Operation Arrival of the Savior).

background

According to the partition plan of the United Nations of 1947, which provided for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine , clashes with violent Muslims in Aden led to the death of 82 people and the destruction of several houses of Jewish citizens. In early 1948, charges against a murderer of two Yemeni girls led to the looting of Jewish property. The Jewish community of Aden was economically at an end because most of the Jewish businesses and livelihoods had been destroyed.

The Yemeni Jews began to gather in " Camp Geula " ( Hebrew , Camp Redemption) in the hope of being able to emigrate to the newly founded State of Israel. The British troops , who were still occupying the colonial area at that time, prevented emigration until the end of the fighting in the Palestine War at the beginning of 1949. By this time around 10,000 people had already gathered at Camp Geula . Yemen's newly appointed Imam Ahmad ibn Yahya gave his secret consent to the air transport and thus the conditions for this operation were in place.

The transport

In response to the increasingly dangerous situation, most members of the Yemeni Jewish community secretly emigrated to Israel through Operation Magic Carpet between June 1949 and September 1950. Migration could continue on a smaller scale until 1962, when a civil war brought further Jewish emigration to a surprising end. Some wealthy Jewish families, who questioned the promise of a better future in Israel, chose not to leave their properties. About 300 Jews remained in Yemen.

During the course of Operation Magic Carpet from 1949 to 1950, the vast majority of Yemeni Jews were brought to Israel by air, approximately 47,000 Jews from Yemen, 1,500 from the Aden region, and approximately 500 from Eritrea and Djibouti . The transports were mainly carried out by Alaska Airlines . Most of them had never seen an airplane before, they left their accustomed existence as farmers and had to get used to a completely unfamiliar life in a new country in Israel.

The official name of the action came from two known passages of the Bible :

  • Ex 19.4  EU : "You have seen for yourself what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on the wings of eagles and brought you to me."
  • Isa 40,31  EU : “Those who believe in God will become stronger. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not get tired. "

Operation Magic Carpet was the first in a series of operations in the 1950s and 1960s aimed at transporting entire Jewish communities from Arab states to Israel.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, “On Eagles' Wings” - Aliyah from Yemen (1949). Retrieved June 3, 2015
  2. ↑ The frayed truth of Operation Magic Carpet on Haaretz.com.Retrieved on July 13, 2012
  3. ↑ Martin Gehlen, Minorities: Lost Between the Fronts in: Der Tagesspiegel, July 14, 2009
  4. ↑ American airline captain honored. Retrieved April 3, 2019 .

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