Israel has launched ‘Operation Bodies of Dawn’ to dislocate the members of the ‘Bnei Menashe’ community from Northeast India to Tel Aviv. Around 250 people from Manipur were lifted in the first phase of the operation, and thousands more will be airlifted in the forthcoming times.
In 2025, the Benjamin Netanyahu government blazoned an action to fund the immigration of around 4,600 members of the community from India. Over the past two decades, nearly 5,000 people have formerly migrated to Israel, as per the reports. Following this, on April 23, under the first phase of ‘Operation Bodies of Dawn,’ around 250 members of the Bnei Menashe community were dislocated from Manipur to Tel Aviv via airlift. The Bnei Menashe community is considered the lost lineage of Israel, who claim themselves the descendants of Menashe. They were reportedly expatriated in 722 BC by Assyrian trimers after the defeat of the Kingdom of Israel. After they expatriated from Israel, they travelled through Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, and China; around 10,000 members of the community reached India’s northeast and settled in Manipur and Mizoram, as per the reports.
The report suggests that Jews chose India as they viewed it as the safe place where they in no way faced religious persecution in the country as they did in other corridors of the world. In Manipur the Menashe community is classified as Kukis who follow Judaism and its customs and traditions.
