Difference between revisions of "Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Sudan"
(New page: Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections (Africa batch 2); every reference checked) |
(Relabel sources per v2 rule: 'partisan' replaced with '[X]-side' (named after whose source it is), per David) |
||
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
===Chabad=== | ===Chabad=== | ||
:''Main article: [[Chabad-Lubavitch movement]]'' | :''Main article: [[Chabad-Lubavitch movement]]'' | ||
| − | There is no Chabad Bot page for Sudan, and the [[Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States]] lists no rabbi there.<ref name="ARIS">Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, [https://www.rabbisalliance.org/about/the-rabbis/ The Rabbis] ''rabbisalliance.org'', accessed 21 October 2026 ( | + | There is no Chabad Bot page for Sudan, and the [[Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States]] lists no rabbi there.<ref name="ARIS">Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, [https://www.rabbisalliance.org/about/the-rabbis/ The Rabbis] ''rabbisalliance.org'', accessed 21 October 2026 (Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States-side).</ref> |
==Zionist movement and advocacy== | ==Zionist movement and advocacy== | ||
| Line 33: | Line 33: | ||
===Normalisation and the terror list=== | ===Normalisation and the terror list=== | ||
| − | On 23 October 2020 the United States, Sudan and "Israel" announced that Sudan and "Israel" had agreed "to the normalization of relations" and "to end the state of belligerence between their nations". The statement followed President [[Donald Trump]]'s decision to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.<ref name="WH2020">The White House, [https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/joint-statement-united-states-republic-sudan-state-israel/ Joint Statement of the United States, the Republic of Sudan, and the State of Israel] ''whitehouse.gov'' (archived), 23 October 2020 ( | + | On 23 October 2020 the United States, Sudan and "Israel" announced that Sudan and "Israel" had agreed "to the normalization of relations" and "to end the state of belligerence between their nations". The statement followed President [[Donald Trump]]'s decision to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.<ref name="WH2020">The White House, [https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/joint-statement-united-states-republic-sudan-state-israel/ Joint Statement of the United States, the Republic of Sudan, and the State of Israel] ''whitehouse.gov'' (archived), 23 October 2020 (US government-side).</ref> The removal took effect on 14 December 2020, as part of a deal in which Sudan paid $335 million to US victims of terror attacks and agreed to normalise relations with "Israel".<ref name="BBC2020" /> On 6 January 2021 Sudan signed the Abraham Accords declaration during a visit to Khartoum by the US treasury secretary, [[Steven Mnuchin]], who also signed an agreement to give Sudan access to more than $1 billion a year in World Bank financing.<ref name="MEE2021">''Middle East Eye'', [https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudan-us-israel-sign-abraham-accords Sudan signs agreement normalising ties with Israel] ''Middle East Eye'', 6 January 2021.</ref><ref name="SudanAA">[https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Sudan-AA.pdf The Abraham Accords Declaration (Sudan signature page)] ''US Department of State'', January 2021 (US government-side).</ref> In April 2021 the cabinet approved a bill repealing the 1958 law on boycotting "Israel".<ref name="AJ2021">''Al Jazeera'', [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/6/sudanese-cabinet-votes-to-repeal-israel-boycott-law Sudan's cabinet votes to repeal Israel boycott law] ''Al Jazeera'', 6 April 2021.</ref> After the military takeover of October 2021, the United States suspended aid and the normalisation process was frozen.<ref name="Axios2023" /> The Israeli foreign minister, [[Eli Cohen (politician)|Eli Cohen]], visited Khartoum on 2 February 2023 and said the text of a peace agreement had been finalised. It was to be signed in Washington after power passed to a civilian government.<ref name="BBC2023">Raffi Berg, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64503867 Israel says Sudan peace deal to be signed in Washington] ''BBC News'', 2 February 2023.</ref> |
===Contacts with the army and the RSF=== | ===Contacts with the army and the RSF=== | ||
| Line 39: | Line 39: | ||
===Trade=== | ===Trade=== | ||
| − | Sudan does not appear in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics' table of trade by country.<ref name="CBS">Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), [https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2026/fr_trade12_2025/td1.pdf Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports] ''CBS'', December 2025 issue (library copy) ( | + | Sudan does not appear in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics' table of trade by country.<ref name="CBS">Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), [https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2026/fr_trade12_2025/td1.pdf Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports] ''CBS'', December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).</ref> |
==Migration and aliyah== | ==Migration and aliyah== | ||
===Ethiopian Jews via Sudan=== | ===Ethiopian Jews via Sudan=== | ||
| − | Up to late 1985 about 14,000 Beta Israel walked about 800 km from Ethiopia to Sudan, and about 1,500 died on the way, died in the camps around Gedaref and Kassala, or were abducted.<ref name="BBC2019Arous" /> The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Sudan separately. Its combined "Egypt, Sudan" row records 16,024 immigrants born there in 1948–51, 17,521 in 1952–60, 2,963 in 1961–71, 535 in 1972–79, 352 in 1980–89, 201 in 1990–99 and 472 in 2000–2020.<ref name="CBSAliyah">Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), [https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2024/2.ShnatonPopulation/st02_55.pdf Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence] ''CBS'', 2024 ( | + | Up to late 1985 about 14,000 Beta Israel walked about 800 km from Ethiopia to Sudan, and about 1,500 died on the way, died in the camps around Gedaref and Kassala, or were abducted.<ref name="BBC2019Arous" /> The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Sudan separately. Its combined "Egypt, Sudan" row records 16,024 immigrants born there in 1948–51, 17,521 in 1952–60, 2,963 in 1961–71, 535 in 1972–79, 352 in 1980–89, 201 in 1990–99 and 472 in 2000–2020.<ref name="CBSAliyah">Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), [https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2024/2.ShnatonPopulation/st02_55.pdf Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence] ''CBS'', 2024 (Israeli government-side).</ref> |
===Sudanese asylum seekers in "Israel"=== | ===Sudanese asylum seekers in "Israel"=== | ||
Revision as of 07:27, 21 October 2026
The small Sudanese Jewish community, Israeli support for the Anyanya rebels, Operations Moses and Joshua and the Mossad's Arous resort, Israeli strikes in 2009 and on the Yarmouk factory in 2012, the 2020 normalisation and the US terror-list deal, the Burhan–Netanyahu meeting in Entebbe, Israeli contacts with the army and the RSF, and Sudanese asylum seekers and the Holot centre
Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Sudan include a small Jewish community that left after independence,[1] covert Israeli operations on Sudanese soil, and a normalisation process tied to Sudan's removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.[2] From 1969 to 1971 the Mossad armed and trained the southern Anyanya rebels.[3] In the early 1980s Mossad agents ran a fake diving resort on the Red Sea coast as cover for smuggling Ethiopian Jews to "Israel".[4] Sudan has accused "Israel" of air strikes in 2009 and 2012.[5] Since 2020 "Israel" has dealt with both of the generals who went to war with each other in 2023.[6]
Jewish community and religious life
History
In 1908 the Moroccan-born Rabbi Suleiman Malka arrived in Khartoum at the request of the Jewish authorities in Egypt, which oversaw the community in Sudan. Jews settled in Khartoum, Khartoum North, Omdurman and Wad Medani, and the community built a synagogue in Khartoum in 1926. After independence in 1956 and the Suez war later that year, growing anti-Israeli feeling meant most Jews no longer felt safe. A community of about 1,000 had fallen to a handful by 1973.[1] The World Jewish Congress (WJC) says the synagogue was called Ohel Shelomo and stood on Victoria Street, and that many of the Jews who left settled in "Israel", while others went to Europe and North America.[7]
The community today
The US State Department described the Jewish community in the Khartoum area in 2023 as "statistically small", adding that most of its members had sought shelter in surrounding communities since the war began that April.[8]
How far is it Zionist? No Jewish organisation operating in Sudan today was found. The WJC says the historic community maintained ties with Jewish communities in the Arab world "and also supported the newly established State of Israel".[7]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
There is no Chabad Bot page for Sudan, and the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi there.[9]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No Zionist organisation operating in Sudan was found. The main Zionist activity on Sudanese soil was the covert movement of Ethiopian Jews through the country to "Israel" (see below).[4] According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the Sudan rescue drew on the resources of the United Israel Appeal, a fundraising arm of American Jewry, as well as on US officials in Khartoum.[10]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Support for the Anyanya, 1969–71
Between 1969 and late 1971 "Israel" gave comprehensive support to the Anyanya, a southern Sudanese rebel group fighting the government since 1963. The operation was led by the Mossad. Arms, military equipment and medicine were airdropped at the Anyanya headquarters at Owiny Ki-Bul, near the Ugandan border. Israeli military advisers and medics trained the rebels and helped set up a field hospital, and some Anyanya officers were trained in "Israel". The Mossad also produced propaganda for the Anyanya, which was printed in "Israel" and circulated as authentic South Sudanese material.[3]
Operations Moses and Joshua and the Arous resort
From the late 1970s Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) fled to refugee camps in Sudan. After Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered the Mossad to act, its agents found an abandoned resort at Arous, about 70 km north of Port Sudan. They leased it from the Sudanese tourism corporation, posing as European entrepreneurs, and ran it as a working diving resort for more than four years. By night they drove refugees from the camps near Gedaref to the coast, where Israeli naval commandos took them to the ship INS Bat Galim. Israeli Hercules aircraft later landed on desert airstrips. From late 1984, in an airlift codenamed Operation Moses, 6,380 Ethiopian Jews were flown on 28 covert flights from Khartoum to Brussels and on to "Israel", after President Jaafar Nimeiri agreed under US pressure and in return for a large payment. Sudan halted the flights after the story broke on 5 January 1985.[4] On 6 March 1985 US Vice-President George H.W. Bush met Nimeiri in Khartoum, and Nimeiri reportedly agreed to the removal of the remaining Jews if it was done quickly and quietly. On 22 March US military C-130s flew the last group from an airstrip near Gedaref in an operation planned by the CIA.[11] The BBC puts the number of Ethiopian Jews in this final airlift at 492. Nimeiri was overthrown on 6 April 1985, and the head of the Mossad ordered the resort evacuated.[4] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency names the final airlift Operation Joshua. It gives different figures from the BBC: 800 stranded Jews and an estimated 4,000 deaths on the way to Sudan or in the camps.[10]
Air strikes, 2009–12
In March 2009 the US network CBS News reported that Israeli aircraft had attacked a convoy in eastern Sudan in January that year, killing 39 people in 17 trucks believed to be carrying arms for Gaza. The Israeli military declined to comment. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said "Israel" was "operating in locations near and far".[12] In October 2012 Sudan said four aircraft had bombed the Yarmouk military factory near Khartoum, killing two people. The information minister said the attack had been "authorised by the same state of Israel".[5] Writing in The Guardian, Ian Black noted that "Israel" neither confirmed nor denied the raid. A senior Israeli defence official, Amos Gilad, called Sudan "a dangerous terrorist state". Black also cited Israeli media reports of at least two secret air operations in Sudan in early 2009, including the convoy strike, in which 119 people were said to have died. He noted that a missile strike on a car near Port Sudan airport in 2011 had killed the successor of Mohammed Mabhouh, described as the link man between Hamas and Iran, whom suspected Mossad agents had assassinated in Dubai in January 2010.[13]
The Entebbe meeting, 2020
On 3 February 2020 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan's Sovereignty Council, in Entebbe, Uganda. An Israeli statement said they had agreed "to start cooperation leading to normalisation". Sudan's foreign minister said she had learned of the meeting from the media.[14] Burhan said he had acted "to protect the national security of Sudan". The cabinet said it had not been "notified or consulted", and the Forces of Freedom and Change called the meeting "a clear violation of the country's Constitutional Declaration". A Sudanese official said the meeting had been arranged by the United Arab Emirates.[15]
Normalisation and the terror list
On 23 October 2020 the United States, Sudan and "Israel" announced that Sudan and "Israel" had agreed "to the normalization of relations" and "to end the state of belligerence between their nations". The statement followed President Donald Trump's decision to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.[16] The removal took effect on 14 December 2020, as part of a deal in which Sudan paid $335 million to US victims of terror attacks and agreed to normalise relations with "Israel".[2] On 6 January 2021 Sudan signed the Abraham Accords declaration during a visit to Khartoum by the US treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who also signed an agreement to give Sudan access to more than $1 billion a year in World Bank financing.[17][18] In April 2021 the cabinet approved a bill repealing the 1958 law on boycotting "Israel".[19] After the military takeover of October 2021, the United States suspended aid and the normalisation process was frozen.[6] The Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, visited Khartoum on 2 February 2023 and said the text of a peace agreement had been finalised. It was to be signed in Washington after power passed to a civilian government.[20]
Contacts with the army and the RSF
Israeli officials told Axios that the Israeli foreign ministry had dealt with Burhan on normalisation, while the Mossad dealt with Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on "security and counterterrorism issues". When war broke out between the army and the RSF in April 2023, foreign ministry officials spoke to Burhan's side and Mossad officials to Hemedti's, urging both to de-escalate.[6] A 2022 investigation by Lighthouse Reports with Haaretz and Inside Story found that a private jet linked to the former Israeli intelligence officer Tal Dilian and his spyware firm Intellexa flew to Khartoum on 18 May 2022, carrying phone surveillance technology for the RSF. An RSF commander said the equipment was then moved to Darfur to prevent its seizure by the army. The investigation also reported that Hemedti had met Israeli intelligence twice since June 2021, and that a private jet used by the Mossad had been tracked to Khartoum.[21] In November 2023 Raseef22 reported Israeli media accounts of a meeting in Abu Dhabi between Hemedti and the former Mossad director Yossi Cohen, and of a visit to Tel Aviv in October 2021 by the RSF commander Abdelrahim Dagalo. An adviser to Hemedti told Raseef22 that normalisation with "Israel" was "strategic" for the RSF.[22]
Trade
Sudan does not appear in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics' table of trade by country.[23]
Migration and aliyah
Ethiopian Jews via Sudan
Up to late 1985 about 14,000 Beta Israel walked about 800 km from Ethiopia to Sudan, and about 1,500 died on the way, died in the camps around Gedaref and Kassala, or were abducted.[4] The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Sudan separately. Its combined "Egypt, Sudan" row records 16,024 immigrants born there in 1948–51, 17,521 in 1952–60, 2,963 in 1961–71, 535 in 1972–79, 352 in 1980–89, 201 in 1990–99 and 472 in 2000–2020.[24]
Sudanese asylum seekers in "Israel"
Human Rights Watch reported in 2014 that about 14,000 Sudanese and 37,000 Eritreans had crossed into "Israel" from Egypt before a new border fence all but sealed the route in December 2012. "Israel" refused to register their asylum claims until late 2012, and by mid-August 2014 it had rejected 100% of Sudanese claims. In December 2013 it opened the Holot "Residency Center" in the Negev, which HRW called a detention centre in all but name: those held there had to report three times a day and stay overnight. By the end of June 2014 at least 6,400 Sudanese had officially left "Israel" for Sudan, while not one Sudanese had been recognised as a refugee. Seven returnees told HRW they had been detained and interrogated in Khartoum. One was tortured, and another was charged with treason for visiting "Israel", which Sudanese law punishes with up to ten years in prison. HRW quoted the former interior minister Eli Yishai saying that, as long as "Israel" could not deport them, it should "lock them up to make their lives miserable".[25] On 22 September 2014 the Israeli High Court of Justice voided the law establishing Holot by seven votes to two. It gave the government 90 days to close the centre or change its legal basis.[26]
Political interference
Israeli support for the Anyanya armed a rebellion against the Sudanese state.[3] In 2020 Burhan met Netanyahu without informing the civilian cabinet, and the civilian coalition called the meeting a breach of the transitional constitution.[15] Normalisation was linked to Sudan's removal from the US terror list.[16][2] Israeli-linked surveillance technology reached the RSF in 2022.[21]
No credible sourced link between Jeffrey Epstein and Zionist or Israeli activity in Sudan was found, so this page has no Epstein section.
See also
- Abraham Accords
- Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States
- Zionist movement
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Egypt
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Ethiopia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Uganda
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 BBC News, Sudan's lost Jewish community – in pictures BBC News, 20 October 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 BBC News, Sudan's listing as sponsor of terrorism ended by US BBC News, 14 December 2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Yotam Gidron, "A People Fighting" ISPADA – Israeli Planning, Architecture and Development in Africa, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Raffi Berg, Red Sea Diving Resort: The holiday village run by spies BBC News, 5 August 2019.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Associated Press, Sudan claims Israeli jets blew up arms factory The Guardian, 24 October 2012.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Barak Ravid, Israel fears Sudan unrest could end prospects of peace treaty Axios, 19 April 2023.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 World Jewish Congress, Legacy of Jews in the MENA: Sudan World Jewish Congress, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Sudan US Department of State, 2024.
- ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 21 October 2026 (Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States-side).
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Sudan aided Ethiopian aliyah JTA, 27 March 2007.
- ↑ Charles T. Powers, U.S. Evacuates Ethiopian Jews: Last Group of Falashas Secretly Airlifted From Sudan to Israel Los Angeles Times, 23 March 1985.
- ↑ Rory McCarthy, Attack that killed arms smugglers in Sudan 'carried out by Israel' The Guardian, 26 March 2009.
- ↑ Ian Black, 'Israeli attack' on Sudanese arms factory offers glimpse of secret war The Guardian, 25 October 2012.
- ↑ Al Jazeera, Netanyahu says Israel and Sudan to normalise ties soon Al Jazeera, 4 February 2020.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Arwa Ibrahim, Netanyahu-Burhan meeting slammed in Sudan, exposes divides Al Jazeera, 5 February 2020.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 The White House, Joint Statement of the United States, the Republic of Sudan, and the State of Israel whitehouse.gov (archived), 23 October 2020 (US government-side).
- ↑ Middle East Eye, Sudan signs agreement normalising ties with Israel Middle East Eye, 6 January 2021.
- ↑ The Abraham Accords Declaration (Sudan signature page) US Department of State, January 2021 (US government-side).
- ↑ Al Jazeera, Sudan's cabinet votes to repeal Israel boycott law Al Jazeera, 6 April 2021.
- ↑ Raffi Berg, Israel says Sudan peace deal to be signed in Washington BBC News, 2 February 2023.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lighthouse Reports, Flight of the Predator Lighthouse Reports, 30 November 2022.
- ↑ Osman Abdelhalim, After a coup and two wars, where does Sudan-Israel normalization stand? Raseef22, 30 November 2023.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024 (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ Human Rights Watch, "Make Their Lives Miserable": Israel's Coercion of Eritrean and Sudanese Asylum Seekers to Leave Israel Human Rights Watch, 9 September 2014 (critical).
- ↑ Human Rights Watch, Israel: High Court Voids Migrant Holding Law Human Rights Watch, 24 September 2014 (critical).