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After weeks of trying to fly out of Morocco, 26 Israelis stranded in the Kingdom over the coronavirus pandemic reportedly landed, Thursday morning, in Tel Aviv. The group left Morocco on Wednesday for Paris on an Air France flight and flew to Israel once in the French capital, Israel Hayom reports.
Their repatriation, however, was no easy task, according to the newspaper. The group sought the help of Israeli businessman and Likud politician Nir Barkat to have a plane bring them home.
The operation was dubbed «secret», the same source wrote, adding that Barkat appealed to Israeli American philanthropist couple Miriam and Sheldon Adelson to help charter a plane.
The move was to appeal private entities to assist the 26 Israelis as Morocco does not maintain diplomatic ties with Israel in order to conclude a direct repatriation deal. The Andersons, who are primary shareholder in Israel Hayom, agreed to charter their private plane to bring the group home once in Paris.
Among the passengers were, reportedly, Israeli youth who were on an overseas trip, an Israeli Bedouin Arab from east Jerusalem, and Israeli and Jewish businessmen with dual Israeli-Moroccan citizenship, the newspaper wrote.
Several failed attempts
«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», Barkat told the newspaper.
Captain Joel Grandy, the pilot of the Boeing 767 aircraft used by the Adelsons' company, said that it is «about the fourth attempt [to fly the group]» from Morocco.
«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 (…) even if we could have gone through Casablanca, we would have had to stop in Rhodes, to land, prior to coming to Israel», he explained.
The repatriation of Israelis stranded in Morocco has made headlines weeks before it allegedly took place. In mid-April, Israeli Army radio claimed that Morocco would have reportedly refused to repatriate Israelis stranded in the Kingdom.
The same source alleged that this process would have become very difficult in light of a political crisis between Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
At the time, a source at the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to comment on the reports, citing «information, without source, published in the Israeli press».
