Geula Mualem lives in Jerusalem, but was born in northern Iraq. She was 12 years old during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, when her extended family decided to leave the village where she was born and make the journey to the new Jewish state being established in the Land of Israel.
In a conversation with Al-Monitor, Geula explained that the motive behind the decision was, first and foremost, Zionism. In other words, her family wanted to immigrate to the Promised Land. At the same time, however, the environment in which they lived was becoming increasingly hostile to Jews as were the authorities. As Jews in Iraq suffered from repeated acts of violence and looting, the police did nothing to protect them, making their lives difficult.