Posted on 01/30/2005 3:24:43 PM PST by freedom44
It was a long trip from Tel-Aviv to the Iraqi elections polling station in Amman. But Jacky Khugi, 37, was not deterred. He made it twice last week.
"It was a real pain," he said. "I had to go once to register and again to vote."
Khugi, an Israeli journalist working at Ma'ariv newspaper was born in Petach Tikvah to Iraqi-born parents. By Iraqi law that gave him the right to participate in the Iraqi elections and he had three reasons to take advantage of that.
Not only did he want to write the one-of-a-kind story for his paper and also give a vote for Iraq's democracy he also had another reason.
"It's 54 years since my father left and, in an emotional way, I am returning to Iraq," he said.
Khugi's parents left Baghdad in 1950 as children and he grew up with all their memories and their longings.
For many Iraqi Jews, their departure from Iraq is not solved, said Khugi. "Many of them really miss the country. They see their departure as something against their desires. They speak about it in terms of tearing themselves from their homeland like tearing a piece of cloth.
"I heard beautiful stories and sorrow and I wanted to touch it in a way, as much as I could," he told the Jerusalem Post.
When Khugi showed up at one of the eight polling stations in Amman, the first thing he did was identify himself as an Israeli and show the all-Iraqi polling staff his Israeli passport. "At first they were surprised," said Khugi. "The 'head staffer' told me, "We're not used to this. It's new to us." Nevertheless, said Khugi, the staff was very friendly to him.
Khugi gave them his grandfather's lisse pass , which was issued by the Iraqi government when his grandfather left Iraq in 1950. His father's name is written on it as one of the children. He also handed them a translated document from the Israeli Ministry of Interior stating he is his father's son.
"They said, "No problem, you can vote."
Khugi, who lives in Tel-Aviv with his wife and two children, says the long trip and the high cost involved in going to Iraq are the reasons that apparently no other Iraqi Jews from Israel voted. Now he has another dream.
"I hope one day soon I can enter Iraq through the front door."
This is a grand story.
GOOD post.
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