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September 27, 2011
American hiker Josh Fattal freed by Iran has Israeli father
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Josh Fattal (L), one of the U.S. hikers who was held in Iran on charges of espionage, stands with his parents Jacob and Laura Fattal and brother Alex during their arrival in Muscat after his release from Tehran's Evin prison on Sept. 21. Photo by REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani
For more than two years, relatives of Josh Fattal, one of the two American hikers freed from prison in Iran last week, managed to hide a vital piece of information from his captors: Fattal’s family is Israeli.
Jacob Fattal, Josh’s father, immigrated to Israel from Basra, Iraq in 1951. He lived with his parents and siblings in the Kiryat Ono transit camp, and later in Pardes Katz. After his military service, he left for the United States, where he studied engineering and raised a family. Today, he is the publisher of a high-tech magazine distributed in the United States, Europe and Asia.
“We’re very happy; it’s the greatest gift we could have dreamed of receiving for Rosh Hashanah,” Jacob Fattal told Haaretz yesterday.
To avoid drawing attention to the family’s background, Josh’s brother and mother led the campaign to free him, while Jacob refrained from giving media interviews.
Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, both 28, and Bauer’s girlfriend Sarah Shourd, 32, were arrested by Iranian soldiers in 2009 as they were hiking near the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq.
Read more at Haaretz.com.
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I could not careless if Josh Fattal is a jew or not. His an Ameircan and a traitor. he bad mouthed his own country. He should have been left in iran to serve his 7 years. What idiot goes hiking in any of these countries. You want to hike go to Swiztzerlan, Austria, canada but not Iraq. I think these 3 idiots do not deserve their freedom