Two Middle-Eastern peoples are struggling for their survival against fascistic colonial powers. Both face selfish indifference as to their plight from the so-called 鈥渋nternational community鈥, and both call out for international solidarity from ordinary folk around the world as the only force that can help shift the powers weighted against them.
But solidarity between the two peoples themselves is mired in confusion. It is a confusion deliberately nurtured by the powers that oppress them, and cutting through the confusion is a vital part of the struggle for both the Kurds and the Palestinians.
Both peoples are under attack from a powerfully armed state, determined to extinguish them and their culture. Both have faced mass displacements aimed at breaking their will and also at achieving 鈥渆thnic cleansing鈥. Both have seen their cities suffer large-scale military attacks that have left many civilian casualties and a legacy of mental trauma.
Both have seen the legal system used as a further avenue of attack, while violence against them is not only tolerated but encouraged. Both have suffered deliberate destruction of their environment by powers that regard this as just another weapon of war and that control the rivers that bring them life. Both have wept over olive trees as well as loved ones. And both peoples have been deliberately 鈥渙thered鈥 as pariahs in the eyes of the wider population.
Both peoples have been left to the mercy of hostile occupiers as a consequence of decisions taken by the world鈥檚 major imperial powers, and the leaders of those powers even now refuse to acknowledge their acts of resistance.
The latest carnage in Palestine follows intensifying crackdowns by an increasingly right-wing ethno-nationalist government and the even more extreme nationalists that it fosters. The immediate trigger was the imminent eviction of Palestinian families as part of the erasure of Palestinian East Jerusalem. One of those families, whose years of resilience and struggle has been broadcast around the world, bears the name El Kurd 鈥 a testament to their origins in Kurdistan.
Over the centuries, many Kurds have made Palestine their home, and though ethnic background makes no difference to the rightness of their case, this link provides a further reminder that both peoples are fighting the same struggle against oppression. Mohammed El-Kurd wrote, 鈥淲e chant for our freedom while they [Israeli nationalists] chant for our death鈥.
More politically engaged Kurds, such as the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey, fully understand the need to 鈥渟tand by the oppressed Palestinian people鈥, but it is both depressing and worrying to see debates among Kurds about whether or not they should support the Palestinians, and also the antagonism from some Palestinians towards the Kurds.
It wasn鈥檛 always this way. The Palestine Liberation Organisation 鈥 especially its Marxist factions, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine 鈥 played a major role in training Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, and 13 PKK cadres lost their lives in the fight against Israel鈥檚 occupation of Lebanon in 1982. (Though, we also have to acknowledge, because real life is never simple, that the PFLP were sadly taken in by Saddam Hussein.)
Both Israel and Turkey attempt to exploit every situation for their own interests. Many Israelis see the Kurds as a reflection of their own carefully nurtured image of the brave underdog fighting for survival against all the odds, especially as the Kurds have defeated Islamic State (ISIS) and are defending themselves against a regime that boasts of its Muslim credentials.
An association with Kurds is seen as a source of good public relations, and Israelis like to wave the flag of (South/Iraqi) Kurdistan. Israel has also actively supported the Kurds in Iraq over many decades, seeing them as an important counter to Arab power, and they were the only country to welcome the independence referendum held by the Iraqi Kurds in 2017.
Some Kurds have been deceived by this opportunistic display of friendship, somehow managing to overlook the fact that Israel regards the PKK as terrorists and is commonly believed to have played a role in the capture of PKK leader Abdullah 脰calan, and that it has developed strong opportunistic relations with Azerbaijan for whom Israel is a major arms supplier.
Israeli drones played a crucial role in the recent brutal war against the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, and they won鈥檛 risk jeopardising their Azerbaijani relationship, or their chequered relationship with Turkey, by recognising the Armenian Genocide.
The hypocrisy of Israel鈥檚 Benjamin Natanyahu is only matched by that of Turkey鈥檚 President Recep Tayyip Erdo臒an, who has been vocal in his efforts to place himself at the head of the Muslim world and to win support as a saviour of Islam鈥檚 oppressed.
According to the Turkish state-run Andalou News Agency, the Imam of Al Aqsa Mosque, which has been repeatedly stormed by Israeli troops, thanked Erdo臒an for his 鈥減recious鈥 speeches; but the agency also report that Turkey has revoked an invitation to the Israeli Energy Minister to attend an international diplomacy conference in June.
Before Palestine burst back onto the world stage, Erdo臒an was rebuilding Turkish-Israeli relations, even though he must have been fully aware of the growing oppression against the Palestinians.
Erdo臒an has pushed both trade and military ties with Israel in the past, and, for all his rhetoric, trade relations with Israel are significant and have never stopped. In December, Turkey鈥檚 presidential advisor on foreign affairs was telling Voice of America: 鈥淭urkey鈥檚 and Israel鈥檚 defence industries can go ahead together.鈥 All the things that Erdo臒an calls out Israel for doing, he does himself against the Kurds.
To make the situation more complicated, today鈥檚 leading Palestinian politicians are much closer to Turkey than in the early days of the PKK, especially those in Hamas, which is in control in Gaza; but it would be wrong to dismiss the decades-long grassroots struggle of the Palestinian people against Israeli oppression because we don鈥檛 like the politicians in Gaza or Ramallah.
The struggle for Palestinian freedom predates and transcends Hamas and Fatah. Its strength is the resistance of the people on the streets or refusing to leave their homes, who need unstinting support.
For Kurds who have had direct experience of intolerant forms of Islamist politics and have observed the closeness between Hamas and Erdo臒an, concerns over this are inevitable, but their support has an extra value as it can help undercut the divisive Islamist narrative in both Palestine and Turkey. It can help reinforce the essential anti-colonial nature of the Palestinian struggle, and it can also disrupt Erdo臒an鈥檚 hypocritical attempts to garner support through portraying himself as the true sponsor of oppressed people.
Links between the Palestinian and Kurdish struggles are often missing from international support too. It is also striking how hard it is for pro-Kurdish campaigns to raise even a fraction of the level of support that is shown for the Palestinians. Kurdish activists have a long way to go to reach the popular awareness that has been achieved for Palestine 鈥斅爓hich is not, of course, to imply that there is anything to envy in the Palestinians鈥 position.
The images coming out of Jerusalem and Gaza are generating widespread empathy, and growing recognition of the Palestinians鈥 right to resist. But, for the more politically engaged, the Palestinian struggle is also recognised as part of the wider struggle against the forces of imperialism and capitalist control that generated and reinforce the current world order and the oppression it has spawned. With this recognition should come realisation of the need to link the Palestinian struggle with other struggles against this system, including the struggle taking place close by in Kurdistan.
[Abridged from an first published in Medya News.]