Neda Amin. Photo: Twitter.

JNS.org – Iranian blogger Neda Amin, who was granted asylum by Israel earlier this week, arrived in the Jewish state on Thursday.

Amin was offered asylum in Israel after facing deportation from Turkey to Iran, where she would have been at risk of being arrested due to her work as a Persian-language blogger with the Times of Israel.

“I am very happy. Israel is my country,” she said at a press conference organized by the Times of Israel.

Amin, 32, who has been critical of the Iranian regime, said she will likely seek permanent resident status or citizenship in Israel, and noted she has Jewish roots through her father.

“My roots are somewhat connected to Judaism,” she said. “I loved Israel since my youth. I never accepted all the [Iranian] regime’s anti-Israel slogans. I always dreamed that I will somehow get to Israel.”

The blogger relocated from Iran to Turkey in 2014, and has since been embroiled in a legal battle to prevent her deportation back to Iran. Amin sought asylum as a refugee in several other countries, and after Israel’s journalistic associations appealed to the Israeli government, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said on August 6 that Amin would be issued a special visa granting her asylum in the Jewish state.