“We know that she is alive,” says Emma Tsurkov on Israeli television. But where her sister Elizabeth is being held and under what conditions is unclear. “She’s alive and that means everything to us.”
She has been missing for several months, but the news only broke this week: Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian graduate student, was kidnapped in Iraq at the end of March. According to the Israeli government on Wednesday, she traveled to Iraq with her Russian passport and on her own initiative. There she wanted to work on her doctorate as a doctoral student at Princeton University in the United States. After conducting interviews, the 36-year-old scientist is said to have been kidnapped in Baghdad’s Karrada district.
The Israeli government blames the Shiite militia Kataeb Hezbollah. It is a powerful faction of Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iran-sponsored and pro-government paramilitary force that has been integrated into Iraq’s security forces in recent years. But the pro-Iranian group denies the allegations.
Anti-Semitism is widespread in Iraq
“Usually she always reacted very quickly to her nephew’s pictures,” says Emma Tsurkov in an Israeli television interview about her sister. But when the reaction on the cell phone was a long time coming, she realized that something was wrong. That was the moment when she turned to the Israeli authorities.
Elizabeth Tsurkov must have been well aware that traveling to Iraq as an Israeli citizen is dangerous. Anti-Semitism is widespread in Iraq. There are very few Jews left living there. Most left Iraq after the establishment of the State of Israel. At a time when several Arab countries have established formal relations with Israel, an “anti-Israel normalization law” was passed in Iraq last year. It bans people from any association with Israel and its citizens. Accordingly, even just exchanging messages with Israeli friends or relatives could result in life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
The law, dubbed “criminalizing the normalization and establishment of relations with the Zionist entity,” does not apply solely to Iraqis at home and abroad. Foreign institutions, companies and individuals operating in Iraq could also be punished for any contact with Israelis. The law was proposed by the influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. It was approved with a large majority.
It is not uncommon for people to be kidnapped in Iraq
Although there are people in Iraq who are in favor of normal relations with Israel, they too have to fear the possible consequences. Two years ago, several hundred people from Iraq called for a normalization of relations with Israel at a conference in Erbil. Arrest warrants and death threats against some of the participants followed.
The fact that an Israeli citizen travels to Iraq to do research there must be a daring undertaking for many. But Elizabeth Tsurkov wanted to get a picture of the reality on site, directly from the people there. “She was convinced that this is not research that you can do remotely,” says her sister.
It is not uncommon for people to be kidnapped in Iraq. It’s a sad trend that has only intensified since the 2019 protests and subsequent elections, creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity in the country. Earlier this year, Iraqi environmentalist Jassim al-Asadi was arrested and released two weeks later. But kidnapping foreigners is not the rule. Iraq is actually a country in which there is a lot of freedom for researchers, at least on the part of the authorities, according to an expert in an interview with the SZ – but the scientists are often accused of espionage.
Now the Iraqi government wants to conduct an official investigation into the Tsurkov case. “Given the scope and complexity of the case, there will be no official statement on this matter until the Iraqi government has completed its official investigation and reached conclusions,” government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi was quoted as saying in Israeli media. After that, there would be explanations or announcements about official positions, he told Al-Ahd broadcaster, which is close to Hashed al-Shaabi.
Emma Tsurkov hopes that the Israeli, Russian and American governments will work together so that her sister can soon be reunited with her family. “We miss her and want her back.”