World
Israeli government is helping hundreds of Arabs flee Ukraine
Israel is one of the only countries to have sent consular support to the Polish border
March 3, 2022 12:28
Israel is one of the only countries to have sent consular support to the Polish border
March 3, 2022 12:28A student from Gaza is among the hundreds of Arabs from several countries that Israel has helped to flee the fighting in Ukraine.
The young man from the Gaza Strip had just crossed into Moldova when he spotted an Israeli flag draped on a car belonging to United Hatzalah, an emergency medical aid organisation.
“Seeing the flag, he immediately sought their help and they are getting him home,” former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman wrote on Twitter.
One-hundred-and-fifty Arab students who had been studying in Ukraine are reported to have been evacuated with the help of the Deputy Israeli Consul in Istanbul, Yara Shibli, who is an Arabic-speaking Bedouin.
A further 100 Arab–Israelis who had been studying medicine in Kharkiv were helped out of Ukraine and across the Moldovan border by strictly-Orthodox rabbi and former Israeli ambassador to Ukraine, Yoel Leon.
Ms Shibli told Haaretz: “There are Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian citizens on the Israeli bus, some of them crossed the border of Ukraine as refugees. The embassy also help Israeli residents from East Jerusalem.”
Ms Shibli is now on the Polish border, from where she is coordinating the hundreds of enquiries from Israelis needing urgent assistance.
“People are calling our emergency phone and answering our WhatsApp, and I pass the referrals to our representatives in the field who are going to locate them in the queues and rescue them,” she told Ynet.
Israel is one of the only countries to have sent consular support to the border to help its nationals get through.
One refugee on the border who said he was a Muslim from Morocco said: “In war, no one can go there. And ambassadors of Israel go there and save their citizens… just your ambassadors go. Very, very good work.”
Many Israelis in Ukraine have been organising their own buses to reach the border. Israeli diplomatic staff told Israelis to mark themselves or their vehicles with “IL” to receive their help on the ground at the border.
On Tuesday night, 100 Jewish children aged four to 18 from a Chabad orphanage in the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr were evacuated into Romania at the Siret crossing, with assistance from the Israeli consul in Romania, Roni Shabtai.
The evacuation came after missiles fired from Belarus hit an airport in Zhytomyr on Sunday.
Some of the children have no parents, while others are “social orphans”, meaning their parents cannot care for them owing to alcoholism, drug abuse and other problems.
Many of the children did not have proper documentation for the move, but with the help of the consul and the governor of Suceava district in Romania, the children managed to leave Ukraine safely.
They will stay in the city of Cluj and from there continue to Israel.
The director of the orphanage, Malka Bukiet, described the effect the war is having on the children: “They’re suffering from anxiety, all sorts of things,” she told the Times of Israel.
“Some say they don’t feel well, or can’t do something, or can’t sleep, or say they can’t get up, or talk about it all the time. I’m in touch with psychologists and we’re trying to keep everyone as occupied as possible all the time.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid wrote on Twitter: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs purchased blankets, socks, hand warmers and road equipment for them and will accompany them until they arrive in Israel. I am proud to be the Foreign Minister asked by his people. I am proud to be Israeli.”