Two years ago, on the eve of Purim, a complex operation to rescue four children from a Palestinian village and return them to their mother ended.,
Liraz (pseudonym), after a long struggle with their father. The operation took place after Liraz herself fled the village many months earlier, and after rehabilitating herself, she turned to the organization Yad L'Achim to help her return the children who remained with their father.
These days she is celebrating two years since the children were born and a new relationship with a Jewish partner.
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Liraz, who was born to a Jewish mother and an Arab father, grew up in boarding schools, and in her youth she married an Arab and moved to live with him in Tulkarm. Over the years she experienced severe violence at his hands, until finally, after her mother died, she decided to flee alone from a village near Tulkarm, destitute. In the first weeks after fleeing the village, she lived alone on the streets, until she slowly managed to recover.
All this time, Liraz kept in touch with her children. In phone calls with them, she would hear them say in Arabic, "We need to kill the Jews," which reinforced her understanding that she had to get them out of there.
After about two years of rebuilding her life, Liraz turned to the organization Yad L'Achim to ask for help in getting her children back. The custody battle was long and complicated, as the father refused to sign documents allowing the children to leave the village.
Additionally, at a certain point, after they had already been transferred to the mother's custody, the father kidnapped some of the children. After hours of nerve-wracking, and under heavy pressure, the organization's members succeeded in returning the children to their mother.
Today, two years after the event, the children are being educated in religious settings, and Liraz herself is growing stronger and closer to Judaism and is about to marry a Jewish partner.
Liraz is celebrating the upcoming Purim holiday with a sense of victory – for leaving the village, for the children's return, and for the journey and rehabilitation she took to get there. "Even though we dress up for Purim, we must not forget the women who dress up all year long, and only ask to return to their homes," the Yad L'Achim organization reminds us.
