A Zionist James Bond story: this Red Sea resort was a secret Mossad base used to evacuate Ethiopian Jews in the 1980s
Ethiopian Jews had fled their country for refugee camps in neighbouring Sudan to escape famine, war and persecution, with the goal of ultimately fulfilling the isolated community’s dream of reaching the Holy Land
The brochure portrayed it as a divers’ paradise located along the Red Sea in Sudan. It was in fact one of the Israeli intelligence agency’s most audacious operations.
The stunning tale is set to become a Hollywood film, starring Ben Kingsley, Haley Bennett and Chris Evans. It dates to the early 1980s, when the Arous holiday resort and its 15 beach houses became a prized spot for divers seeking access to Red Sea coral reefs in an unspoilt location.
“The fish came to nibble on the divers’ masks,” said Daniel Limor, who led “Operation Brothers” for Israel’s spy agency, Mossad.
As far as tourists and Sudanese authorities knew, the resort village was owned by Europeans who employed local residents. They were unaware that Arous was a Mossad base to secretly evacuate 7,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel from refugee camps in Sudan. The operation played out for four years, from 1981 to 1985.
Urged into action by an Ethiopian Jew in Khartoum, Israeli then prime minister Menachem Begin decided to move ahead with the mission in 1977.
Limor, who was also a diving aficionado, spotted a holiday resort built by Italian entrepreneurs in the 1970s along the Red Sea that had been abandoned due to lack of road access and running water.
