This email recently reached Hidabrut’s Anti-Missionary department through a roundabout way.
Meirav, 31, a Jewish girl from the north who was the mother of two children, had converted to Islam, married an Arab, and went to live with him in his village in the Palestinian Autonomy.
“We met four years ago,” Meirav says in a broken voice. “I had just gone through a difficult period after divorcing my husband. Then I met Yasser (not his real name) who was working in the supermarket where I did my shopping. He smiled to me, then one day asked me out to a café and I agreed. I knew he was an Arab, but it didn’t bother me. He was a likable person.”
After going out for months, they decided to marry. She converted to Islam, and they married in Jaffa. They lived 1 1/2 years in the north, and then he convinced her to move to his village in the Palestinian Autonomy.
“I thought, who cares where we live, as long as our marriage is so strong?” Only after she moved to the village did she realize the magnitude of her mistake. “Within a few days, his attitude to me completely changed. He became extremely violent. He wasn’t the man I knew. He didn’t speak nicely to me. He wasn’t the husband who suggested I buy something for myself. He had turned into a beast.”
Meirav had to face the awful realization that all the love he had professed for her until now had just been lies and deception. She discovered that Yasser had another wife who lived on the top floor of his house, and in the same house lived his brothers and parents — who hated her guts and did their utmost to make her life miserable.
Daily she and her two children — a 3-year old son and 2-year old daughter from her previous marriage — received kicks and slaps from Yassir. They got the same treatment from Yassir’s older children, who also threw stones at the children and cursed and beat them.
“I didn’t know to whom to turn. I couldn’t do anything but cry. Every day I prayed to G-d to get us out of there, but where could I go with three children — 2 from my previous marriage and one with him? Who would help a woman in my situation?”
Then Meirav read about a woman who had been exactly in her situation who had been helped by Hidabroot activists. “I thought, if they helped her, why wouldn’t they help me?” Meirav sent her email that day.
The activists got in touch with her that day. They made dozens of phone calls to the police and the Shabak to help get her out. They assessed her situation as life-threatening.
Meirav was instructed to leave her home immediately. The Shabak sent a taxi with a Palestinian driver to bring her to a certain intersection in Israeli territory. A guard and driver picked her up there and took her straight to the police.
Meirav filed a complaint for verbal, emotional and physical abuse against her husband. Then she was brought to a secret apartment where she is staying until today. The following day, she went to a lawyer where she officially returned to Judaism. The Anti-Assimilation department provided her with clothes, food, furniture, and security until she gets her bearings.
“Only G-d and I know what a nightmare I went through with this Arab, who I thought was the most wonderful person in the world. My advice to others is that when you hear the word ‘Arab’, run away as fast as you can.
“You want the truth? There is no such thing as an Arab that loves you. They hate your guts, and get pleasure out of seeing you suffer. I never dreamed I would reach such a state as I did in the village. I will never forget or forgive what they did to me and my children in the village. Don’t be stupid and don’t think it won’t happen to you. Save your life before it’s too late.”
To contact the Anti-Assimilation Department: 073-2221333, 052-9551591, [email protected].
