Air bridge for Israel

Romania continues to repatriate its citizens from Israel and Gaza.

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Bogdan Matei, 16.10.2023, 14:00

The Romanian public opinion and the political class have never been insensitive to the situation in the Middle East. Israel is home to hundreds of thousands of Romanian-born Jews, or to their descendants. In the Arab world, from Magreb to Levant, including the the Palestinian territories West Bank and Gaza, there are numerous mixed families, most of them made up of Romanian women who married Arabs that came to study in Romania. In the late 1960s, the communist regime in Bucharest was the only regime, behind the former Iron Curtain, which did not suspend diplomatic ties with the state of Israel, although dictator Nicolae Ceausescu invoked, at the same time, what he called the rightful cause of the Palestinian people and had almost fraternal relations with its leader, Yasser Arafat. Driven by the ridiculous ambition of playing a key role internationally, Ceausescu fooled himself that he could mediate peace between Jews and Arabs.

The new wave of violence between Israel and Gaza horrified Romania and prompted the authorities to react quickly, to ensure the protection of its citizens, who risk being victims in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. PM Marcel Ciolacu said authorities are in touch with almost every Romanian of those around 350 in the Gaza Strip, but that no one has managed to leave the Palestinian enclave due to the military blockade imposed by Israel. Ciolacu has explained that the lives of the Romanians in Gaza, most of them with dual citizenship, are not in danger at the moment but that everybody hopes they will come to Romania as soon as possible.

As regards the support granted to the Ukrainian refugees in Israel, Ciolacu said Romania brought in 3,000 such citizens, most of them only transiting the country and 48 asking to remain on Romanian territory. The request for this support was made by the European authorities, with no costs incurred for Romania.

Last week, more than 2,000 Romanian citizens returned from Israel, on 22 flights operated by both the state-owned company Tarom and private companies. Tarom suspended its regular flight to and from Tel Aviv as of Thursday, but it will further operate special flights at the request of the crisis cell with the Romanian Foreign Ministry and will remain in close contact with the authorities in managing the current situation. Tarom is one of the few air companies which did not cancel its flights to Tel Aviv after the terrorist attacks of Hamas on Israel. In fact, between October 7 and 10 when the horrible massacres occurred, it doubled the number of flights between Bucharest and Tel Aviv. (EE)