kurds

Some 200 Israelis march from the Turkish embassy to the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, on October 15, 2019, in support of the Kurdish militants and against Turkey's incursion into Syria. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The hypocrisy of Israel’s alliance with the Kurds

Israel’s solidarity with the Kurds is duplicitous, not only because it also arms one of the Kurdish people’s biggest oppressors, but also because it supports their independence while denying millions of Palestinians that same right. By Sahar Vardi Messages of solidarity and support for the Kurdish people have dominated Israeli discourse since Turkey’s invasion of Rojava in…

By +972 Magazine October 18, 2019

Kurdish fighters in Northern Syria, December 16, 2014 (Kurdish YPG fighters/CC BY 2.0).

To protect its Kurdish allies, Israel must stand up to Turkey

Israel has repeatedly assisted in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by selling arms, training and know-how to murderous regimes. This makes it difficult to trust that it will do the right thing regarding the Kurds. By Eitay Mack The world is watching with alarm as the Turkish army commences its military invasion of…

By +972 Magazine October 14, 2019

Kurdish fighters in Northern Syria, December 8, 2014 (Kurdish YPG fighters/CC BY 2.0).

U.S. withdrawal is a tragic blow for Syria’s Kurds

Donald Trump’s apparent capitulation to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the fate of Syria’s Kurds risks paving the way for ISIS to renew its strength in the region, while adding to the growing murkiness of the Syrian conflict’s endgame. By Kareem Shaheen Even by Syria’s standards, the chaos of the last few days has…

By +972 Magazine October 10, 2019

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Israeli academics protest outside an Istanbul courthouse alongside 'Academics for Equality,' whose members are on trial for signing a petition calling for peace between Turkey and its Kurdish citizens.

Persecuted Turkish academics get a rare solidarity visit from Israel

Turkey has put dozens of academics on trial for terrorism charges — for signing a petition supporting peace with Kurdish citizens. A group of dissident Israeli academics traveled to Istanbul to attend their trials. It’s not uncommon to run into a political protest in Istanbul. What you probably won’t find every day is a group…

By Edo Konrad February 11, 2018

Günay Kubilay. (photo: Avi Blecherman)

Pro-Kurdish leader: ‘We extend our hand to the Palestinian people’

Despite President Erdoğan’s control over the Turkish media and political persecution of minorities, the pro-Kurdish ‘Peoples’ Democratic Party’ has managed to become the third largest party in the country’s parliament. Günay Kubilay, one of its highest-ranking members speaks to +972’s Hebrew-language sister site, Local Call, about incitement and violence, Turkey’s disintegrating democracy, and the link between…

By +972 Magazine December 12, 2015

Refugee warm up near a fire at the Arin Mirkhan refugee camp, Turkish-Syrian border, October 2014. Photo: Faiz Abu-Rmeleh/Activestills.org

PHOTOS: Kobane refugees dream of home in Turkey’s refugee camps

Though hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled the city of Kobane over the past months, some of them insist on making the dangerous journey home to retrieve what was left behind. Text and photos: Faiz Abu-Rmeleh / Activestills.org Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish and Syrian refugees have fled the city of Kobane in northern…

By Activestills December 27, 2014

The Yazidi refugee camp, Khanek (photo: Saad al-Avdal)

Surviving winter after surviving ISIS: A testimony by a Yazidi refugee

Since the beginning of August, an estimated 350,000 Yazidi internally displaced persons (IDP) have been living in villages, towns and various refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, Syria and Turkey. While most of those who found refuge have taken shelter in local school classrooms, construction sites or under bridges, the IDPs who have been placed in…

By +972 Magazine October 22, 2014

Israelis of Kurdish origin demonstrate in solidarity with the Yazidi community in front of the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, August 13, 2014. The Yazidi community in northern Iraq has recently been attacked by extremists of Islamic State. The protesters called for U.S intervention. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

The Kurds must not be abandoned again, this time to ISIS

If there are any people on earth who deserve the world’s protection from slaughter, it is the Kurds. Despite the stereotype of Mizrahi Jews in Israel resenting Arabs because of the way they were treated in the old country, there are plenty of Mizrahim who have good memories of their relations with their former Muslim…

By Larry Derfner October 9, 2014

A soldier in the Kurdish military or peshmerga attempts to direct crowds of internally displaced people waiting outside the Khazer Checkpoint between Nineveh and Erbil Provinces in Iraqi Kurdistan, July 9, 2014. (Photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

Why Israel must help the Kurds in Iraq

The Yezidis are presented in mainstream accounts as mere props in a play entitled, ‘Militant Islam and its horrors in the Middle East.’ But the story of the Kurdish people is much more than just a scene — or cannon fodder — in an IS exhibition of horror. A Kurdish Jew in Israel calls on…

By Haokets September 1, 2014

A demonstrator burning from a molotov intended to be thrown toward the police during Turkey's riot police raid on Taksim Square, Istanbul, June 11, 2013.
Photo by: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org

From Taksim protests to Women in Black: A week in photos – June 7 – June 12

This week: anti-government protesters continue to clash with riot police in Gezi Park near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, Israeli police arrest social protesters in Jerusalem and the Angry Grandmothers make a (singing) return to mark the 46th anniversary of the Israeli occupation. …

By Activestills June 14, 2013

+972 blogger detained in Turkey while reporting on Syria

This post has been updated. Roee was released at around 4 a.m. local time. I am writing this from a Turkish police center in Ceylanpinar. Located in eastern Turkey along the border with Syria, it is in Urfa province and it’s population is mostly ethnic Kurdish. My television crew and I were filming along the…

By Roee Ruttenberg August 11, 2012

Why a strike on Iran could amount to a suicide mission

By Jalal Nali The failure of diplomatic efforts aimed at providing Tehran with incentives to suspend its uranium enrichment in exchange for a transparent civilian nuclear program under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision has the international community worried that Tehran can no longer be engaged in meaningful negotiations. Suspicions are…

By +972 Magazine March 10, 2012