Elizabeth Tsurkov

Elizabeth Tsurkov (born 1986)[1] is a Russian-Israeli researcher who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023 and allegedly held by the group Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia backed by Iran.[2][3] The militia has denied involvement in the matter.[4]

Biography

Tsurkov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to Jewish parents who moved to Israel when Tsurkov was four.[1]

Tsurkov is a doctoral student at Princeton University who went to Iraq to do academic research.[2] She is a nonresident fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a foreign policy think tank operating out of Washington, D.C.[3] Tsurkov volunteered in several human rights organizations in the middle east, promoting the rights of Palestenians, refugees, migrants, torture survivors, human trafficking victims and various minorities. Tsurkov fiercely opposed the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its military operations against Gaza.[5][6] In 2011 she began learning levantine Arabic, after finishing her bachelor's degree in international studies.[7]

Kidnapping

Tsurkov was abducted on March 26, 2023, while sitting in a cafe in Baghdad's Karrada district.[8] Tsurkov was conducting field research in Iraq for her doctoral dissertation at Princeton University, as confirmed by the university's deputy spokesperson on October 3, 2023.[9] Multiple Princeton scholars and employees, including Professors Amaney Jamal, Tali Mendelberg and Mark Beissinger, were aware of her research in Baghdad.[10] Tsurkov contacted a Shiite cleric named Ahmed Alwani with the intention of meeting his cousin Muhammad Alwani, a senior official in the Kata'ib Hezbollah in Iraq. When the two men discovered Tsurkov's Israeli citizenship, they decided to kidnap her.[11] On September 8, 2023, human rights organizations Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Scholars at Risk and Democracy for the Arab World Now pledged the Iraqi government "to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Elizabeth Tsurkov".[7] Princeton spokesperson said the university "...continues to communicate with relevant government officials and experts to understand how we can best support Elizabeth’s safe return to her family and her studies at Princeton".[12]

References
  1. Azizi, Arash. "Free Elizabeth Tsurkov!". Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  2. Ronen Bergman; Patrick Kingsley; Alissa J. Rubin; Adam Goldman (5 July 2023). "Israeli Woman Held for Months in Iraq by Shiite Militia Linked to Iran". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Wikidata Q120379305. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
  3. David S. Cloud (5 July 2023). "Israeli Researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov Held Hostage by Iran-Linked Militia in Iraq, Israel Says". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Wikidata Q120379295. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
  4. "دولت عراق تحقیق درباره ناپدید شدن شهروند اسرائیلی را آغاز کرد". BBC News فارسی (in Persian). Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  5. Radcliff, Pete. "Elizabeth Tsurkov speaks on the situation in Israel after the 2014 war on Gaza". Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  6. Jung & Naiv. "Human rights - Jung & Naiv in Israel: Episode 188" – via YouTube.
  7. "Joint Statement: Iraq: Release Kidnapped Scholar". Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Scholars at Risk, Democracy for the Arab World Now. September 8, 2023. Retrieved September 10, 2023."Joint Statement: Iraq: Release Kidnapped Scholar"."Joint Statement: Iraq: Release Kidnapped Scholar".
  8. Salami, Daniel (2023-07-07). "Iraqi TV footage shows Israeli researcher leaving cafe just before abduction". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  9. Bonette, Julie. "Princeton Acknowledges Kidnapped Grad Student Was in Iraq for Research". Princeton Alumni Weekly. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  11. "Israeli-Russian Researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov's Circumstances of Alleged Kidnapping in Iraq Revealed". Shafaq News. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  12. Tucker, Eric. "US should use its influence to help win the freedom of a scholar missing in Iraq, her sister says". AP. AP News.
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