{"id":622294,"date":"2026-09-20T22:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T22:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/622294\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T22:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T22:42:14","slug":"freed-after-11-years-in-iraqi-prison-ben-hassin-visits-western-wall-ahead-of-yom-kippur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/622294\/","title":{"rendered":"Freed After 11 Years In Iraqi Prison, Ben Hassin Visits Western Wall Ahead Of Yom Kippur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" data-is=\"component-paragraph\">Ben Hassin, an Israeli-Canadian citizen freed after 11 years in prison in Iraqi Kurdistan, arrived at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday, the eve of Yom Kippur. The visit marked a symbolic homecoming for Hassin, who once faced execution in an Iraqi prison and returned to Jerusalem as a free man.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Who is the Israeli freed from death row in Iraqi Kurdistan?\" class=\"Lazy_poster__hZbms\" data-is=\"lazy-image\" data-observed-item-id=\"https:\/\/i24israel.vod.immergo.tv\/i24israel\/api-uploaded\/WILDMOKA_68939242184.jpg\"\/>Who is the Israeli freed from death row in Iraqi Kurdistan?<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-is=\"component-paragraph\">Hassin, a Jew of Kurdish descent, was about 20 when he traveled to Iraq to visit relatives, according to earlier reports. During his stay, he joined a local militia fighting ISIS. He was arrested and convicted of murder after shooting a taxi driver during an argument while returning from the frontlines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-is=\"component-paragraph\">His family said at the time that the driver suspected he was Jewish and Israeli and threatened to hand him over to ISIS. Hassin maintained that he fired in self-defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-is=\"component-paragraph\">A death sentence imposed on Hassin was reportedly lifted following a pardon last year. His release followed a reconciliation agreement with the driver&#8217;s family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-is=\"component-paragraph\">In footage circulated on social media after his release, Hassin was seen crying in the back seat of a car. \u201cI can\u2019t believe it; I\u2019ve longed for this day. These are tears of joy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Hassin, an Israeli-Canadian citizen freed after 11 years in prison in Iraqi Kurdistan, arrived at the Western&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-622294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}