As they do every year, Kurdish Jews in Israel
gathered over the Sukkot holiday for their annual Saharana festival. The
ancient community came together to sing, dance, eat, and trade stories
from the old country in their traditional Aramaic tongue. Many expressed solidarity with the Kurds' struggle against Da'esh (IS terrorists) and criticism of the Turks' reluctance to help them. Report in the Times of Israel:
But
this year, amid the music and revelry in the northern town of Yokne’am,
an unshakable sense of worry permeated the atmosphere and
conversations. In speeches and in private chats around bowls of steaming
Kubbeh soup, Israel’s Kurds expressed anger and concern over the plight
of their Kurdish brethren fighting against the Islamic State in Syria
and Iraq.
“If you send me, I’ll go to the Kurds to fight
Daesh,” said old-timer Yossi Mizrahi with a smile, using the Arabic
name for IS. “I’d go tomorrow,” promised Mizrahi, born in the town of
Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan.
Sitting with his wife and other Kurdish
friends, Mizrahi, well beyond fighting age, said he follows closely the
developments in Kurdistan. IS are “animals,” he said. “Garbage. And they
won’t last long.”
Yossi
Mizrahi (right) and a friend from Iraq at the Saharana celebration
during the Sukkot holiday, 2014 (photo: Lazar Berman/Times of
Israel)
He didn’t have much kinder words for Turkey, a
long-time opponent of Kurdish national aspirations, and currently
unwilling to help the Kurds battling IS fighters in the town of Kobani
on the Syrian-Turkish border. “The Turks want them to destroy the Kurds.
Turkey is disgusting.”
Turkey sees the main Syrian Kurdish group, the
PYD — and its military wing, which is fighting IS militants — as an
extension of the PKK, which has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and
is designated a terror group by the US and NATO.
Aharon (who asked that his last name be
withheld), born in Mosul, Iraq, more than 80 years ago, travels to
Kurdistan regularly for business. He speaks with his contacts there
every two days, and recently helped arrange a Kurdish agricultural
delegation to Israel.
When the fighting reached his childhood city,
he was especially concerned. “As someone who was born in Mosul, I was
very afraid that they would blow up the Mosul Dam. But America helped
them, and the Kurds took control over the dam.”
He takes great pride in his efforts to help
the Kurdish medical and agricultural sectors grow. “We were in the same
situation that they are in today. They are hated all around. They don’t
want them. They don’t want to give them a state. We were in the same
situation….[Legendary Kurdish leader] Mustafa Barzani was here many
times. And during the 60s and 70s, we sent many military services there.
Officers in civilian dress, who trained their army to fight against
Saddam. So they say to us, you helped us in wars, help us to be
independent economically.”
Israel should help too, Aharon urged, but
quietly, “without the name. We don’t want to arouse Arab states against
them, and not Turkey either.”
Haviv Saidoff from Karkur, a former Bank Leumi
clerk, came to Jerusalem from the city of Duhok in 1939. He is in touch
with an Armenian woman back in Kurdistan, who sends him regular updates
on the fighting in the area.
Haviv Saidoff at the Saharana, Sukkot 2014 (photo: Lazar Berman/Times of Israel)
They communicate in Aramaic, but she writes
the language in Arabic script, while he writes in Hebrew. “So we write
Aramaic in English letters. We wrote about three days ago…. She sends us
pictures, all sorts of things.
“All the world needs to attack IS. As for the Kurds, from the way they run their affairs, they deserve help.”
Some attending the festival even have family
in the eye of the storm in Syria. Sima Levy, dressed in traditional
Kurdish garb, came to Israel from Qamishli in 1962 at the age of 18. But
she left an older sister behind. She stayed in touch with her sister,
who moved with her family to Aleppo, meeting with her in Jordan and
Turkey, and sending her money.
But her sister was never willing to move to
Israel. “They said they want to,” said Levy. “But she won’t leave her
family and come here.”
It's not just that Turkey has sat back and watched the slaughter of Kurds by Daesh. Erdogan positively helped Daesh get up and running and is likely involved in purchasing and marketing their oil output.
ReplyDelete