Israeli Jews, Christians Rally in Support of Syrian Kurds
Israelis protest the Turkish offensive against Syria’s Kurds in Paris Square, Jerusalem, October 12, 2019. (Credit: Social Media.)
A crowd of Israeli Jews and Christians met in Paris Square, Jerusalem last Saturday to condemn the Turkish invasion of Northeastern Syria and to stand in solidarity with Syrian Kurds. The idea for the rally began last week after news of the invasion broke, and support swelled on Israeli social media among both Jews and Christians. Some of the Israeli attendees were descendants of Holocaust survivors and invoked their tragic family history by declaring that they would not be silent as the world was in the face of Jewish suffering during the 1930’s and 40’s. A Rabbi who spoke at the event called on the Israeli government to recognize the Armenian genocide, pointing out that Germany had accepted responsibility for the Holocaust, but Turkey has not done so for its own holocaust of 1.5 million Armenians between 1914-1923. The Jerusalem rally was followed by a second one on Sunday morning in Tel Aviv in front of the Turkish embassy, where a gathering crowd chanted “The Kurdish people are not alone.”
The rallies came just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly condemned the Turkish invasion, calling the Kurds “gallant people” and promising to provide humanitarian assistance. His office received a petition signed by dozens of reserve officers in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) the same day, declaring, “We remember very well [by] the blood of our people, what happens when the nations of the world abandon the fate of a people.” The letter called on the Prime Minister to provide both humanitarian and military assistance to the Syrian Kurds.
Over 200 civilians have died and over 130,000 have been displaced as a result of the the Turkish “Fountain of Peace” operation in Northeastern Syria, leading to a wave of demonstrations across the world in Europe, North America and the Middle East.
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