Pisces Affair
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The Pisces Affair was the sinking of the Pisces, renamed Egoz (Hebrew: אֱגוֹז hazelnut), a ship leased and operated clandestinely by ha-Misgeret of the Mossad, carrying Moroccan Jews from the Gulf of Alhucemas in Morocco to Gibraltar, 10 January 1961. The sinking resulted in the death of 46 of the people aboard. From Gibraltar, the migrants were then to have gone to Israel at a time when the migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel was illegal under Moroccan law.
The event had a dramatic impact on politics in Morocco. Morocco was held responsible for the disaster in the international press, and it then eased its policies on Zionist emigration. The newspaper at-Tahrir of the National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP) saw the policy change as a direct consequence of pressure from the United States, Europe, and Israel.