Peter Lyukimson, Israel. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
27-year-old Anita Nahlifor will become the first Muslim citizen of Iran to obtain Israeli citizenship. At the moment the Interior Ministry of Israel is providing her with the status of a permanent resident of the country.
The story of this very beautiful girl is very interesting. In 1999 the elder sister of Anita accidentally met an Israeli singer in Turkey, who sang in Farsi (the songs are very popular in Israel). The young people fell in love and decided to get married. In 2000 Anita and her mother visited Anita's sister and they liked Israel so much that Anita’s mother decided to stay in the country. Anita’s father, who worked at one of the state facilities of Isfahan didn’t accept his wife’s choice and refused to move to Israel.
However, life in their new place wasn’t easy. Anita’s mother became a cleaning lady, but even this job was difficult to find, as she actually lived illegally in Israel. All requests to the Interior Ministry to give her any status failed: probably, the Israeli authorities looked on her as a citizen of a hostile country; or vice versa – they didn’t want to worsen relations with Iran.
Two years later Anita’s mother decided to return to Iran and reunite the family. But Anita couldn’t live outside Israel anymore and especially didn’t want to live in Iran. So she actually ran away from her mother and stayed alone at 16 in Israel with her Iranian passport R4138323.
Anita says that in Israel she has met good people. Nevertheless, there were many difficulties. Some employers used the fact that the girl had no status and refused to pay her salary. Sometimes, she couldn’t rent an apartment to live in. And of course she didn’t have medical insurance, so when he got sick, she had to pay huge sums for treatment.
Over and over again Anita requested the Interior Ministry to settle her problem, but received only rejections. At last, the recently-appointed minister of interior affairs, Gideon Saar, heard Anita’s story and ordered she be given the status of a permanent resident of the country (it gives all rights to a person except for being a voter and being elected) and to speed up the process of giving her citizenship.
It is a historic case: Israel has always tried to deport Iranians who have left Iran for Israel. Probably after Anita several of her compatriots who live in Israel with no rights will get this status as well.
Anita says she doesn’t want to visit Iran in the near future. According to her, she is a full Israeli citizen and she has nothing to do in her “historic motherland” headed by Islamists. “But you cannot imagine how beautiful it is!” she adds.
