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BBC Documentaries - Saving The Forgotten Jews

Seizoen: 2015 - Aflevering: 290 / 2983 - Eerst uitgezonden: 13 december 2015 - Episode ID: 1265223

In the 1980s and 1990s the state of Israel performed two undercover, dramatic airlifts. Their aim - to rescue a lost tribe of Israelites: the Ethiopian Jews. After 2,000 years in Ethiopia the Jews faced persecution, civil war and famine. Now in Israel their community still observes the ancient biblical festival, lost to many Jews, the day of devotion: Sigd. Without the unyielding faith of a community and an elaborate Mossad hoax the Jews of Ethiopia could still be stuck in refugee camps. Behind these incredible events are the actions of a then little-known Manchester businessman. In the late 1970s Lord David Alliance received a mysterious phone call and allotted 15 minutes of his busy schedule to two Israeli diplomats. Shocked to hear how diplomacy had failed to rescue the Ethiopian Jews he cleared his diary. Over the next few years David created a fake office in Khartoum, Sudan and paved the way for Mossad agents to operate behind enemy lines. They created fake tourist villages and charities and arranged rendezvous in the desert with Israeli Air Force planes, filling them with refugees. When issues arose David himself even ventured out to Sudan, to open the border, and then to war torn Ethiopia to personally negotiate the release of the then-captive Jewish community. As Sigd approaches we join those instrumental in the operations alongside eyewitnesses who experienced the mass-airlifts of an entire community. This is the story of how so-called miracles occurred and their relevance today.