Bataween - BBC marks fifty years since Operation Mural

David Littman (pictured with his
wife Giselle and their first child )
 spent several months in Morocco
 in 1961 planning Operation Mural

Bataween
Point of No Return
25 July '11

http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2011/07/bbc-marks-fifty-years-since-operation.html

One anniversary has not gone unmarked by the BBC, of all broadcasters - the fiftieth anniversary of the smuggling of over 500 Jewish children from Morocco to Israel in Operation Mural. Last week, it was the subject of a 10-minute World Service Radio programme - Witness. (Click link below to hear program)

Mural was Mossad's code-name for David Littman, whose cover was a public-school-educated Anglican gentleman, on tennis-playing terms with the British consul, and with excellent security contacts in Casablanca. His mission was to defy the Moroccan ban on Jews wishing to emigrate to Israel.

Yossi Shahar was one of the children smuggled out to what the Moroccan authorities thought was a holiday camp in Switzerland. In fact Switzerland was a way-station to Israel - and the children, although separated from their parents, had no intention of coming back home.

Alan Johnson - the BBC journalist who spent several months as a Hamas captive in Gaza - narrates the programme. All credit to producer Helena Selby who managed to surmount many obstacles in order to get this programme out on air.


***Click link to listen BBC Witness programme (podcast)***

Rescuer of 533 Moroccan children recognised at last

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