Portugal news - The current visit of the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, to Israel takes place at a very crucial time: at least 13 Portuguese citizens were murdered on Oct 7, 5 Portuguese citizens managed to be freed from the ghastly tunnels, and 4 Portuguese citizens are waiting to be freed, according to Gabriel Senderowicz, President of the Oporto Jewish Community, on February 11th, 2025. The Portuguese hostages of Hamas highlight the bilateral relations between Portugal and Israel.
Here are the Portuguese hostages of Hamas in 2025:
1_ The captive Hamas hostages with Portuguese citizenship
· Ariel Cunio
Ariel Cunio is 28 years old and is imprisoned in Gaza. He is a Portuguese citizen, from a Turkish Sephardic family in Izmir, registered in the "Kahal Kadosh Portugal" and in the institution "Dotar as Órfanas" in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
· Omer Shem Tov
Omer Shem Tov (whose father, Malki, is a Portuguese citizen) is from the Moroccan families Hassan and Eskenazi with records in the British cemetery of Estrela in Lisbon.
· Segev Halfon
Segev Halfon is in the same desperate situation but still without an outcome in his process of obtaining Portuguese nationality. Segev Halfon is from Moroccan and Tunisian families, with records of marriages in the Portuguese Jewish community of Tunis.
· Tsachi Idan Eini
Tsachi Idan Eini is from traditional Turkish and Egyptian Sephardic families.
2) The Hamas hostages with Portuguese citizenship who were released
· Ofer Kalderon is a Portuguese citizen, from a Greek Sephardic family with records in “Kahal Kadosh Portugal”, “Kahal Kadosh Lisbon”, and “Kahal Kadosh Évora” of Thessaloniki.
· Dror Or Ermoza is a Portuguese citizen, from a family whose story spoken in Ladino inspired the Netflix series entitled "The Beautiful Queen of Jerusalem".
· Adina Moshe Galante is a Portuguese citizen, from a Turkish family from Edirne and Izmir, who are also registered in the aforementioned Portuguese "KK".
· Two former hostages are still awaiting the granting of Portuguese nationality: Or Levy, whose uncle Moshe is a Portuguese citizen from a Turkish Sephardic family in Istanbul; and Eli Sharabi, from a Moroccan family surnamed Turgeman, with records in the Jewish cemetery in Lisbon.
3) The dead Hamas hostages with Portuguese citizenship
1) Yossi Sharabi, brother of Eli;
2) Gila Peled Cohen, from a family from the Portuguese community of Tunis;
3) Daniel Peled, who was Gila's son;
4) Dorin Atias, from a family from Gibraltar and Morocco with records in the Jewish cemeteries of Faro and Lisbon;
5) Liraz Assulin Shitrit, from a Moroccan family;
6) Nevo Arad Edry, from a Moroccan family;
7) Moshe Saadyan, from Moroccan and Turkish families with the names Bouskila and Zubi;
8) Gilad Yehuda, from a Turkish family named Eskenazi;
9) Idan Shtivi, from Bulgarian families named Benveniste and Naftali;
10) Ravid Katz, from a Bulgarian family named Arieh;
11) Orin Bira Kasorlla, from a family from the former Yugoslavia named Paredes/Pardess;
12) Tair, who was his daughter; and
13) Rotem Neumann Kadosh, also from a traditional Balkan Sephardic family.
14) Ran Guili is also from Ottoman Sephardic families, named Nada and Ziuni. Ran died tragically, but his body was never returned to Israel.
One person who has already recovered, though he was seriously injured, was another Portuguese citizen, Menachem Hillel Ben Kalifa, from Moroccan families named Attar and Assayag. Members of this family returned to Portugal after the Inquisition, and there are records of their names in the Jewish cemeteries of Lisbon and the Azores.
Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel's trip to Israel occurs at a time in which immigration in Portugal is much discussed:
The Portuguese hostages of Hamas highlight the bilateral relations between Portugal and Israel. The Jewish community already inhabited the territory long before the foundation of the kingdom. The friendship and cooperation between Dom Afonso Henriques and Yaish ben Yahia was the first milestone on a path that led to the creation of an Empire that was recognized in scientific, economic, military, territorial and diplomatic terms.
Abraham Zacuto, in his ‘Book of Genealogies’, described the arrival of 120,000 Spanish Jews in 1492. They increased the numerical weight of the native Jewish community, which Lúcio de Azevedo estimated at 75,000. This makes it difficult to calculate the number of their descendants within the Jewish world today.
Edmond Malka, former Minister of Justice of the State of New Jersey and a great scholar of the Portuguese Sephardic diaspora, made an effort in this direction in the 1970s. According to Malka in his book entitled ‘Portuguese Faithful’, “there are about two million Jews of Portuguese-Spanish origin".
The future of bilateral relations between Portugal and Israel:
While Portugal and Israel established full diplomatic relations in 1977, the Portuguese parliament passed a proposal to support Israel with an absolute majority of 94% in 2023, on the occasion of 75 years of independence and to strengthen the connection and relations in the fields of economy and culture.
Ms Helena Paiva, Ambassador Designate of Portugal to Israel stated in November 2024: “The hideous attack of Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, the immense suffering of all families of the hostages and all peoples in the region due to this prolonged conflict, make these very complex times. My sincere wishes are lasting peace for everyone living in the region.”
For more information: https://portuguesejewishnews.com/news/articles/the-visit-of-the-portuguese-foreign-minister-to-israel/