Elizabeth Tsurkov

Elizabeth Tsurkov (; born November 11, 1986) is a Russian-Israeli researcher who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023, and is being held by the group Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia backed by Iran. The militia had denied involvement in the matter for months. On November 13, 2023, Iraqi television aired a hostage video of her in custody. In January 2025, Iraq's foreign minister confirmed that Tsurkov was alive and that the government in Baghdad was working to release her.

Biography

Tsurkov was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Soviet Russia, to Jewish parents who moved to Israel when Tsurkov was four.

During her mandatory service in the IDF, Tsurkov became interested in the Arab world. In 2011, she began learning Levantine Arabic, after finishing her bachelor's degree in international studies.

In 2014, Tsurkov was working at the NGO Hotline for Refugees and Migrants.

Tsurkov worked as Natan Sharansky's assistant.

Tsurkov is a doctoral student at Princeton University who went to Iraq to do academic research. She is a nonresident fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, an American foreign policy think tank. Tsurkov volunteered in several human rights organizations in the Middle East, promoting the rights of Palestinians, refugees, migrants, torture survivors, human trafficking victims, and various minorities. Tsurkov fiercely opposed the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its military operations against Gaza.

Tsurkov has written about the Middle East, and particularly the Syrian civil war, for publications such as ''+972 Magazine'', ''The Forward'', ''Haaretz'', ''The New York Times,'' and ''The Washington Post''.

Kidnapping

Tsurkov entered Iraq with her Russian passport, in January 2023. She was visiting Iraq to conduct field research in Iraq for her doctoral dissertation at Princeton University, as confirmed by the university's deputy spokesperson on October 3, 2023. Multiple Princeton scholars and employees, including Professors Amaney Jamal, Tali Mendelberg and Mark Beissinger, were aware of her research in Baghdad.

Tsurkov contacted a Shiite cleric named Ahmed Alwani with the intention of meeting his cousin Muhammad Alwani, a senior official in the Kata'ib Hezbollah in Iraq. When the two men discovered Tsurkov's Israeli citizenship, they decided to kidnap her. Tsurkov was abducted on March 21, 2023, while sitting in a cafe in Baghdad's Karrada district.

Response

Shortly after her disappearance, an Iraqi news website said that Iraqi authorities were questioning an Iranian citizen connection to the kidnapping.

In early July 2023, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Tsurkov had been abducted, and accused Kata'ib Hezbollah of abducting her, which they denied. The Iraqi government made a statement that they were investigating Tsurkov's disappearance, but so far had no answers.

On September 8, 2023, human rights organizations Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Scholars at Risk and Democracy for the Arab World Now pledged the Iraqi government "to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Elizabeth Tsurkov". On September 11, American senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker wrote a letter asking American President Joe Biden to put pressure on the Iraqi government for Tsurkov's release. On September 13, a Princeton spokesperson said the university "...continues to communicate with relevant government officials and experts to understand how we can best support Elizabeth’s safe return to her family and her studies at Princeton".

On November 13, 2023, a 4-minute video of Tsurkov was released on Telegram and subsequently aired by Al Rabiaa TV. In the video, which could not be authenticated, Tsurkov says she had been detained for seven months, although she does not identify her captors or location, and she also mentions the Gaza war. Tsurkov also says in the video that she had been working for the CIA and Mossad, which Tsurkov's family denied. Several Iraqi experts doubted the confession and determined that it was made under duress and therefore bogus.

In late January 2025, Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Hussein confirmed to Israeli journalist Barak Ravid that Tsurkov was still alive and that efforts were underway to secure her release. Tsurkov's family expressed doubt about the Iraqi government's efforts.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsurkov, Elizabeth
1986 births
Living people
21st-century Israeli scientists
21st-century Israeli women scientists
21st-century Russian scientists
21st-century Russian women scientists
Israeli people taken hostage
Kidnapped Russian people
Missing person cases in Iraq
Princeton University alumni
Israeli people of the Israel–Hamas war
Women in the Israel–Hamas war
Foreign hostages in Iraq
Iran–Israel proxy conflict