Israel stripped seats from a jet to fly thousands out before Addis Ababa fell

Airliner seats came out so that people could get in. On May 24, 1991, Israel launched Operation Solomon, an airlift that moved more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa in 36 hours. Rebel forces were approaching the capital, threatening the time left to organize a departure.

The Jewish Agency's history describes negotiations with Ethiopia's government and preparations for evacuation at short notice. A letter from US President George H. W. Bush to Ethiopia's new president helped secure an agreement on May 23. The airlift began the next day; Addis Ababa fell to rebels shortly after it ended.

The operation brought together institutions whose work had begun before aircraft reached the runway. JDC, the American Jewish humanitarian organization, says it had provided health and welfare services to thousands gathering in Addis Ababa. It then helped plan and negotiate their departure with Israeli and Jewish organizations.

For the final movement, JDC describes a discreet call system used to gather people. Working with the Israeli embassy, it supplied food and fuel and coordinated transport to the aircraft. The essential problem was getting families from their temporary places of waiting onto planes in an organized stream.

The Ethiopian Jewry Heritage Center identifies Mossad among the participants, alongside the military, Foreign Ministry, Jewish Agency and veteran Ethiopian immigrants. Its account describes people already awaiting departure helping assemble groups at the embassy. The flight line depended on those community organizers as well as the arriving crews.

Removing seats increased the number of passengers who could travel. The Jewish Agency records births during one crowded flight, a small human detail inside an immense logistical undertaking. Its retrospective and JDC's account agree on the compressed 36-hour span, even where institutional histories differ over exact totals of people and aircraft.