The Belgian Trans European Airways, a charter company with good connections in Sudan, is the carrier which airlifted about 10,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel since last November, it was disclosed here. The flights were suspended over the weekend.
Trans European is owned by George Gutelman, a Belgian Jew. Informed sources said here Friday that it was chosen for the delicate rescue operation several months ago because of its long standing relations with the authorities in Sudan, the country from which most Ethiopian Jews have been flown to Israel after making their way on foot across the border.
Trans European is carries thousands of Sudanese and other Moslems each year on their pilgrimage to Mecca. Sudan, a member state of the Arab League, has no diplomatic or other relations with Israel. The sources said the planes carrying Ethiopian Jews which took off from Khartoum were therefore obliged to fly to Israel in directly, landing first at various European capitals, including Brussels and Rome.
The same sources said the operation was conducted in semi-secrecy because a large number of Ethiopian Jews were suffering from a variety of tropical diseases.
Trans European announced yesterday that it has withdrawn as the carrier after the Ethiopian government accused Sudan of aiding the operation. Sudan denied the charge.
The Times of London reported that Ethiopian Christian refugees in Sudan told a British scholar, Tudor Parfitt, that about 10,000 Ethiopian Jews fleeing war and famine, had crossed “100 miles of some of the most dangerous terrain in Africa” to get to Khartoum. He also said the graves of about 1,500 of them were uncovered near refugee camps in northern Sudan.
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