A group of 26 Israelis stranded in Morocco for several weeks over the coronavirus pandemic landed in Israel on Thursday morning.
The group was extracted from the Muslim country in a secret operation devised by Likud MK Nir Barkat, who appealed to Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson for help in chartering a plane.
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Among the passengers were Israeli youth who were on an overseas trip, an Israeli Bedouin Arabs from east Jerusalem, and Israeli and Jewish businessmen with dual Israeli-Moroccan citizenship.
Morocco does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, which required the Israelis to appeal to private entities for assistance.
The matter was brought to Barkat's attention and his took the lead on the extraction, keeping in constant contact with the group as various options were explored.
The Likud lawmaker contact the Adelsons, who immediately agreed to help, granting Barkat use of their private plane in order to fly the group home.
The group left Morocco on Wednesday for Paris on an Air France flight. Once in the French capital, the Israeli boarded the Adelsons' plane and headed home.
Devising the extraction included intense efforts by the National Security Council at the Prime Minister's Office, which employed various diplomatic channels to facilitate the mission.
The group expressed serious allegations about the way in which the Foreign Ministry's handled their predicament. They claim that not only did Foreign Minister Israel Katz fail to do enough to expedite their extraction, a tweet he posted about the efforts to bring them home angered Moroccan authorities and delayed their extraction.
"The coronavirus outbreak made Moroccan authorities shut everything down immediately," Ilan Hatuel, one of the Israelis who boarded the flight told Israel Hayom. "There is a state of emergency there. If you go out, you're detained."
Hatuel said he organized the groups and together they appealed for help "to anyone we could think of. I called the Foreign Ministry, they said, 'We'll get back to you' – but they never did. I contacted Nir Barkat and he came to the rescue. We couldn't believe we were getting in a flight home."
Barkat, who waited for the plane at Ben Gurion International Airport, told Israel Hayom he was "delighted to see the plane land and very happy I had the opportunity to be part of this operation.
Commenting on the operation itself, Barkat said, "This was a very complicated process because Morocco has no diplomatic relations with us. For some time, authorities would grant the necessary permits [for the group] to leave the country and it took considerable efforts to bring them back to Israel.
"To the Adelsons' credit, they immediately made their American aircraft available for the rescue flight. This is an exceptional display of the mutual guarantee the State of Israel shows its citizens. Even during the coronavirus crisis, Israel will not abandon its citizens and we spare no effort to bring them home."
Captain Joel Grundy, the pilot of the Boeing 767 aircraft used by the Adelsons' company, based in Las Vegas. Grundy, a veteran of 15 years in this position, explained that the company usually refrains from sharing information about the flights it carries out, so the secrecy of the "operation" was obvious to him.
Q: What can you share with us about the planning and the execution of this operation?
"It's been quite trying because I think this is about the fourth attempt [to extract the group," he told Israel Hayom prior to the flight.
"We tried to go through Casablanca first and then that didn't work out and then we tried to go through Rabat, and that didn't work out, and it's I guess mainly due to Israel and Morocco do not have diplomatic relations which meant that even if we could have gone through Casablanca, we would have had to stop in Rhodes, to land, prior to coming to Israel.
"Now that the passengers are able to get out and come up to Paris, Paris is a portal city to arrive into Tel Aviv. So the passengers are coming up on an Air France flight, they will go through security down in Casablanca and when they get off the airplane tonight [Wednesday] at 9 o'clock they will have to go through security for screening, along with the crew. They will all be transported through security and then rechecked then board our airplane."
Q: This has been in the works for a few months?
"It's been about five or six weeks, we've attempted a couple of times to come and just prior to departing from Las Vegas we were stopped because we couldn't get the required permits or we couldn't get the people through security in Casablanca because the airport has been closed except for cargo traffic and they had no way of getting people through security screening."
Q: Do you know why you were specifically chosen for this flight?
"I am the lead captain on the Boeing 767, and mainly fly this. We have mini airplanes but I've been flying for Dr. and Mr. Adelson for the last 15 years primarily on the 767."
Q: Can you tell us what you have done to keep this mission low profile?
"We do not discuss any of our flight plans, our destinations, without permission."
Q: Do you any of the passengers? Have they said anything to you?
"I haven't had any direct contact with the passengers, their representative has been talking to our dispatch office in Las Vegas, who does most of the coordination for arranging the times and the flights.
"I hope all goes well tonight and that their flight is on time."
The Adelson family owns the company that is the primary shareholder in Israel Hayom. Dr. Miriam Adelson is the publisher of Israel Hayom.
