Operation Joshua
1985 removal of 494 Ethiopian Jews from the refugee camps in Sudan to Israel
Operation Joshua, also known as Operation Sheba, was the 1985 airlifting of Ethiopian Jews from refugee camps in Sudan to Israel.
Ethiopian Jews had fled to refugee camps in Sudan from a severe famine in their country. The Israeli Operation Moses had previously airlifted 8,000 people to Israel from November 21, 1984, to January 5, 1985, but when word leaked out to the press, under pressure from other Muslim countries, Sudan blocked further flights, leaving many behind.
All 100 United States senators signed a secret petition to President Ronald Reagan, asking him to have the evacuation resumed. Vice President George H. W. Bush then arranged a follow-up mission called Operation Joshua. On March 22, 1985, six United States Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft were dispatched, landing near Al Qadarif. "Around 500", "more than 500" or "around 650" Jews were located and transported to Ovda Airport in southern Israel.
See also
Aliyah from Ethiopia
Operation Solomon
Jewish Agency for Israel
Further reading
Mitchell G. Bard, From Tragedy to Triumph: The Politics Behind the Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry, 2002, ISBN 978-0-275-97000-0, p.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Operation Joshua” is 1985 removal of 494 Ethiopian Jews from the refugee camps in Sudan to Israel. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Operation, Joshua and removal, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 31, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q2449944. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1985, 1984 and 2002.
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