The Bottom Line - 15 August 2003
RESCUE MISSION IN BAGDAD
As a follow up to the column on 18 July about the Iraqi Jewish community, a secret humanitarian rescue mission dubbed "Ezra Mizion" (Help from Zion), spearheaded by the Jewish Agency, funded by Keren Hayesod / Israel United Appeal, six elderly Jews were brought from Baghdad to Israel on July 25. The 28 remaining Jews chose to stay in Iraq.
The operation, conducted in co-ordination with the Prime Minister's Office and other bodies in Israel and abroad, including HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), began on July 11, when a three-person task force of Jewish Agency and HIAS staffers entered Iraq, still a very volatile environment. The Agency wanted to assess the conditions and needs of the Jews in Iraq and it became evident that there was a need to undertake an urgent humanitarian rescue.
The team established contact with the Jewish community and gave residents a few days to decide whether they wished to leave on the specially chartered flight. While in Iraq, the team was granted security protection by the United Sates government.
The six who were brought are: Ezra Levy, 75; Salima Shemesh, 75, originally from Basra; Sasson Salach Abdul, 90, an employee of the Iraqi Railway Authority until he was fired in 1951 for being Jewish; Haleli's daughter Hatoun Dayan, 70; Naima Haleli, 99; and Meir Yehezkel Shabad, 46. Some of them were prosperous in the pre-Saddam era, but lost their jobs and possessions and fell into poverty because they were Jewish.
The six were taken to a hotel in Yehud and then to the Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Tel Aviv for check-ups. They will be moving on to absorption centres, nursing homes, hospitals or to their families.
"There is so much love and such a vision of life in Israel," said Ezra Levy following his arrival. He decided to come to Israel to reunite with his sister, Dalia, whom he hadn't seen for 52 years. "I came to see her and to live with her,” Levy said. "I am in a new life. It's a new thing. Everything is very, very good. The sun is rising, I see all my friends and my brothers and sisters in Israel."
Ezra visited the Western Wall. He was moved to tears to finally be able to visit the Wall, which he had dreamed about and hoped to visit his whole life. He recited the traditional Shehechiyanu prayer and blew a shofar.
A close family friend of new arrival Salima Shemesh, Simcha Shem Tov, had begged the woman to accompany her when she fled to Israel from Basra 32 years ago. "Then she was too scared to come," said Shem Tov. "I didn't believe it when I found out that she was still alive!"
Iraq once had a thriving community of 130,000 Jews, but about 120,000 fled to Israel between 1949 and 1952, with smaller numbers of Jews leaving the country in subsequent years.
Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor praised those involved in the operation and said: "The Jewish Agency will continue as always to do everything in its power to assist Jews in distress, wherever they may be in the world."