Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

sometimes with false papers or no travel documents. Misgeret also

bribed officials for authentic passports and resorted to Muslim and

Spanish smugglers. In 1960 the Misgeret headquarters in Paris be-

came dissatisfied with these flimsy measures; instead, a negotiated

solution with the Moroccan royal court itself was mooted, even opt-

ing to bribe its members. In July 1960 the head of Misgeret in

Casablanca, Ephraim Ronel, known by his code name Eppy, calcu-

lated that the court needed money outside Morocco should the

monarchy be ousted. Ronel recommended that a Jewish public figure

close to Crown Prince Hassan II be the go-between of Israel and the

court. Several such approaches by eminent Jews well connected with

the Palace to relax regulations on Jews’ immigrating to Israel met

with no success. Then Israel informed Prince Moulay Ali, the son of

King Muhammad V’s brother, of funds available to him in return for

letting the Jews go: the initial sum offered was $10–15 per emigrant.

A deal was finally struck in 1961. With King Hassan now on the

throne, secret talks were held in Europe between a Palace represen-

tative and the Misgeret commander in Morocco, Alex Gattmon.

In the background to these negotiations were secret Israeli-Moroccan

contacts in existence since the end of 1959, on matters unconnected

with Moroccan Jewry. At that time the Mossad advised Moroccan in-

ternal security of a plot between members the Union Nationale des

Forces Populaires (UNFP) and junior Moroccan Army officers to as-

sassinate Prince Hassan; as a result, in December that year the Moroc-

can authorities arrested several UNFP members on charges of conspir-

acy. In the aftermath of the affair, senior Moroccan intelligence officers

wished to promote certain links with the Mossad. In 1960 the Mossad

was allowed to form an embryonic nucleus, separate from Misgeret,

known by its code name Makhela, whose existence was not reported to

Israeli or Moroccan officials and possibly not even to the Moroccan

royal court. The apparatus was headed by Ya’acov Caroz. In this set-

ting, the Misgeret negotiations now succeeded. After Israeli assurances

of “indemnities” to Morocco, Jewish emigration from Morocco re-

sumed as the Yakhin Operation. Tens of thousands of Jews immigrated

to Israel.

MISTA’ARAVIM. The Hebrew term for a secret unit of Israeli soldiers

disguised as Arabs. Members of the Mista’aravim unit dress in tradi-

tional Arab clothing in an effort to blend in with and subsequently

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