MembersThe Bedouin Consul Rescuing Israelis From Ukraine

And the ultra-Orthodox rabbi who rescued Israeli Arab students from Kharkiv

By Yossi Aloni | | Topics: Ukraine
Refugees flee toward the western borders of Ukraine. There are still thousands of Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, in the war-torn country.
Refugees flee toward the western borders of Ukraine. There are still thousands of Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, in the war-torn country. Photo: Nati Shohat/Flash90

“We help Israelis as much as we can, try our best to help. Our people in the field are out in the cold all night to rescue Israelis. We work nights and days and have not slept for almost a week. People can say what they want, but we do our job all the way.”

The speaker is 27-year-old Yara Shibli from the Bedouin village of Shibli, at the foot of Mount Tabor in the Galilee. She works for the Israel Foreign Ministry, and has been helping reinforce the consular department at the Israel Embassy in Kiev since the outbreak of the crisis. Prior to that, for the past two-and-a-half years she has worked as the Israeli Deputy Consul in Istanbul.

Just over two weeks ago she was urgently summoned to Kiev, then together with a team to Lviv. Shibli is now stationed in the Foreign Ministry’s headquarters in the town of Peshmesh on the Polish side of the border and coordinates hundreds of inquiries from Israelis who need urgent assistance in escaping the war zone.

“People...

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