DIN: I sure hope she learned her lesson as she was a vehement opponent of the State of Israel and was a leftist-Arab lover!
Ta’aliq — “to hang” in Arabic — is Iraqi slang for a torture technique that hoists victims into the air, their hands handcuffed above their heads. Akrab, or “scorpion,” is the more painful version, in which the victim’s hands are handcuffed together behind their back.
Elizabeth Tsurkov experienced both, and other excruciating torture, during 2 1/2 years held captive in Iraq by an Iranian-backed militia.
The 38-year-old Israeli-Russian doctoral student at Princeton, who speaks fluent Arabic and has researched the Middle East for over a decade, was studying social political movements in Iraq in March 2023 when she was forced into an SUV, blindfolded, sexually assaulted and beaten, then taken to a torture facility on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Her release in September was announced by President Donald Trump.
Now she is recovering in Israel as Iraqis head to the polls Tuesday for a parliamentary election that includes candidates linked to the militia Tsurkov says kidnapped her, Kataib Hezbollah.
A $600 million ransom demanded
Israelis are prohibited by law from traveling to Iraq, which Israel classifies as an “enemy country.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Tsurkov said she knew the risks but thought she took sufficient precautions, entering on her Russian passport and avoiding contact with militias. She hadn’t counted on Kataib Hezbollah’s deep penetration of activist circles in Baghdad.
She said her captors didn’t know she was Israeli at first. She believes they kidnapped her to try to get a large ransom for a foreigner. While Kataib Hezbollah has never publicly claimed her kidnapping, it has released social media statements that include fake information she gave during torture, a sign of its involvement.
