Born as Rouleen Abdullah in Alexandria, Dina Ovadia didn't know she was Jewish until the age of 15. She moved to Jerusalem with her family, but angered Cairo when she joined the 'occupation' army. Now she has been stripped of her Egyptian citizenship. Ynet News reports:
Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has decided to revoke the Egyptian citizenship of 22-year-old Dina Ovadia from Jerusalem because she moved to Israel and joined the IDF.
When she was 15, an incident happened that turned her life upside down. "I was at home with my mother and brothers, and all of a sudden bearded thugs stormed into our apartment," she told the IDF journal. "They were Salafists, radical Muslims. They fired into the air and warned us to leave Egypt immediately.
Dina Ovadia
"In all the commotion I heard them call our apartment 'Bayt al-Yahud' and I didn't understand what they were talking about. Only after they left, my grandfather sat us, his three grandchildren, for a talk and told us we were Jewish.
"It was hard for me to comprehend this, because at school we were taught to hate the Jews."
The family left Egypt in a hurry and found a home in Jerusalem. Ovadia joined the IDF and served in the IDF Spokesman's Unit. Shortly before her release, she was even recognized by the unit as an exceptional soldier.
After receiving the prize, she was interviewed for the IDF journal and filmed a video of herself telling her life's story. "My biggest dream," she said in the video, "is to visit Egypt wearing uniform, tell them my truth about Israel, and declare: I'm Jewish, and I'm proud of it."
Ovadia's interview and video caused outrage in Cairo, which reached its climax on Monday when the well-known TV personality Ahmed Moussa attacked "the country of the Zionist murderers" on air, and revealed that the Egyptian prime minister decided to revoke Ovadia's citizenship. "This is the first time in history that an Egyptian woman serves in the occupation army," said Moussa, who failed to mention Ovadia was Jewish. Ovadia, who was released from the IDF a year and a half ago, is currently studying international relations at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
"It's shocking, and a low blow, but I don't want to stoop to their level," she said on Monday. "As far as I'm concerned, they should know I'm first and foremost a proud Jew and Israeli, and only then an Egyptian. Every additional word I say will be twisted in Egypt and used against me."
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Dina Ovadia's amazing exodus from Egypt
From the Egyptian legal point of view, the Egyptian nationality is revoked the minute she becomes an Israeli citizen. It is an explicit provision of their nationality law.
ReplyDeleteBut even if it wasn't found out that she has taken up Israeli citizenship, her Egyptian nationality would have been withdrawn anyway -- and in very unpleasant circumstances -- had she returned to Egypt for a visit after two years or more of absence. She would have had to give them a detailed account of where she has been and what she did during those years.
So all in all, it's much better for her it happened this way.
I don't understand why she was never told before that extremely unpleasant and more than like frightening incident happened in Egypt with the Salafists that she was Jewish. Is or was her Father a Muslim or an Egyptian Coptic Christian?
ReplyDeleteThere are still around 100 Jews in Egypt today mainly the elderly, but they know that they are Jewish.