- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ |
Haunted by Holocaust, Israeli group helps fleeing Afghans
When Israeli lawyer Inbar Nacht saw pictures last year of Afghans desperately trying to escape their homeland, she thought of her relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust and knew she had to act.
She and her husband Marius had founded a charity in 2020 that has worked on a range of initiatives, from assisting the elderly and disabled to supporting out-of-work artists during the Covid pandemic.
Evacuating people from Afghanistan -- a war-battered country which has never recognised Israel and which is now ruled by Islamist hardliners the Taliban -- was not within the area of expertise of the group, Nacht Philanthropic Ventures.
In an interview at her Tel Aviv home ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, she told AFP that she "couldn't remain indifferent to the images of people trying to escape with their children and babies".
"It touched my most fundamental Jewish feelings," she said about the dramatic events of last August.
Many Afghans feared a return to the Taliban's hardline rule of the 1990s or possible retribution for working with the US-backed government or foreign forces.
"I tried to imagine my forefathers in such a situation, if someone in a different country had contributed to save them," said Nacht.
"This weighs on us, given our history as Jews. It doesn't matter if the people are from Afghanistan or somewhere else, they're innocent civilians who found themselves in an impossible situation. We tried to see how we could help."
Nacht was not the only Israeli to reach out to Afghans in need.
Aided by Canadian-Israeli philanthropist Sylvan Adams, the Israeli non-government group IsraAID utilised its experience and connections to help nearly 200 at-risk Afghans reach safe shores.
- Quick 'pivot' -
Kabul's only airport was trashed when tens of thousands scrambled to evacuate on any available flight, as the United States wrapped up their withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
Amid the race to evacuate people, the director of Nacht Philanthropic Ventures, Nachman Rosenberg, made contact with a US army veteran who had served in Afghanistan and Stacia George, a former USAID worker there.
George's group, Transit Initiatives, had a list of over 300 at-risk people who wanted to be flown out of Afghanistan, including rights workers, scientists, members of ethnic minorities, interpreters and others whose could face threats from the Taliban.
But on August 26, the day the group was set to be taken to the Kabul airport, a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group tore through the crowd outside the airport, killing nearly 200 people.
With air travel impossible, and fearing the Taliban would close the roads from Kabul, George's team decided to use the busses meant to reach the airport to instead drive to Mazar-i-Sharif, a city northwest of Kabul.
Nacht's charity helped pay for the transit, accommodation, food and security for the nearly 300 people staying in Mazar-i-Sharif.
"The foundation was incredible in terms of being able to pivot so quickly and provide resources quickly, in a substantial way that really allowed us to make that decision and have the capability to save people's lives," George told AFP.
- 'Extreme gratitude' -
It took four nerve-racking months, but by January the 278 people who had been evacuated to Mazar-i-Sharif found safe locations around the world.
Nacht's identity was initially not shared with the Afghans.
Hamid, a 33-year-old civil engineer who had been working on US-army funded projects in Afghanistan, knew he would be at risk if he stayed in his homeland once the Taliban took over.
"Anyone working for the US was the enemy," he told AFP.
He had managed to get to the Kabul airport with his wife and three children in hopes of reaching Rwanda, which had agreed to accept them, but was turned back amid the chaos a day before the August 26 attack.
Back home in Kabul city, he was contacted by a person connected to George's organisation, who informed him of a bus that could take him to Mazar-i-Sharif.
Hamid and his family made it there, staying at a guesthouse for 23 days before leaving to the United Arab Emirates from where they flew to Rwanda.
To him, Nacht's donation was an act of "pure humanity."
"She doesn't know us or anyone else that she's helping, except for knowing we are all Muslims," he said in a phone call from Kigali.
"All we can say is we're very thankful and really appreciate this human act of kindness and hope they get more capacity to help even more people."
F.Müller--BTB