I PURELY COMMENTARY 1
Rescued Kurds Find Asylum in Israel
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
W
orld public opinion keeps fail-
ing in responsibilities to pre-
vent mass murder of innocent
people. Once again tens of thousands of
Kurds have been gassed in the mass
slaughter conducted in Iraq.
Occupied in a task of constantly
maligning Israel, the media especially
are ignoring the Iraqi tragedy and the
organized campaign aiming at the an-
nihilation of an entire people. The
calamity that is Lebanon's is also ig-
nored and the Kurds' is one of great
horror.
Every time a young Arab is injured
or killed in the intifada process there
is a mathematical competition to count
the fatalities in the 10-month war
against Israel. That Israelis are com-
pelled to defend their lives counts for
less than the claim that so moralistic
a society as Israel must not use bullets
for self-defense. In a major sense it is a
compliment. Israel is expected to rise
high in morality, even higher than its
noblest standards. But there is harm to
Israel's security in that very process.
But why the ignoring of the horrors
perpetrated in Lebanon, of the resort to
poison gas in the Iraqi aim to an-
nihilate the Kurds?
Now, in time of crisis, Israel comes
Two Kurdish immigrants who were flown to Israel in Operation Ezra and
Nehemia.
to the rescue, offering asylum to some
of the rescued Kurds.
A Jewish Telegraphic Agency report
from Jerusalem tells of the
humanitarian aim by Israel to admit
more than 200 Kurdish orphans from
Iraq "who are presently refugees from
eastern Turkey." The Israel Foreign
Ministry instructed the Israeli mission
in Ankara "to determine the most prac-
tical means of transferring the group as
quickly as possible," with the endorse-
ment of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres
and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
It was additionally announced that
the rescued youths will be educated at
Youth Aliyah facilities operated by the
World Zionist Organization and the
Jewish Agency for Israel. The youths
will not be brought up as Jews or be
converted to Judaism.
In this connection it is recalled that
in 1977 Prime Minister Menachem
Begin accepted 200 Vietnamese "boat
people" as refugees. They are now com-
fortably established in Israel in the
Oriental restaurant business.
It is especially important to trace a
background in the Iraqi program of
mass murders of the Kurds that con-
tinued from the 1970s. The Jewish ac-
tivities in a rescue program are
especially important in relation to the
manner in which the so-called Palesti-
nian guilt is ignored.
The earlier Kurdish sufferings were
outlined in a special article issued by
the Union of Orthodox Jewish Con-
gregations of America on Sept. 24,
1979. Under the heading: "Human
Rights — the Kurd and the Palesti-
nian," Fred Ehrman, then chairman of
the UOJCA Israel Commission, gave a
thorough analysis of a situation that in-
volved both the Kurd sufferings as well
as the misrepresentations regarding
"Palestinians" and the associated Arab
guilt in the antagonisms to Israel. The
Ehrman analyses, while written near-
ly a decade before the "intifada" is such
a thorough resume of the events that
have caused so much agony, especially
in the positions pursued by the media,
Continued on Page 40
Human Rights —Kurd And Palestinian
U
nder the above title, the Union
of Orthodox Jewish Congrega-
tions of America on Sept. 24,
1979, issued this analysis on the occa-
sion of the horror stories then made
public about the mass murder of
Kurds by Iraq. The author of the state-
ment that follows, Fred Ehrman, then
was chairman of the UOJCA Israel
Commission. He presented basic facts
regarding the Kurdish Jews and the
Palestinian involvements which con-
tinue to menace the peace sought by
Israel.
Ehrman's compiled facts can in
the main be applied to the current ex-
periences as well as to the intifada
that has arisen threateningly. The
Ehrman essay follows:
"We find it shocking that so
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Vol. XCIV No. 7
2
October 14, 1988
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1988
little attention has been paid to
the plight of the Kurds in Iran
by those prominent human
rights activists in the United
Nations or the United States
who have currently raised
such a hue and cry over the
false issue of the Palestinian
Arabs.
"In contrast to the Palesti-
nian Arabs, who have never,
until recent years, expressed a
strong interest in controlling a
specific piece of territory or
establishing a unique and
viable national identity, the
Kurds are a distinct ethnic
group, with their own customs,
culture and language, who
have lived continuously in
their own land, Kurdistan —
currently occupied by the
Soviet Union, Iraq and Iran —
for thousands of years. They
have fought stubbornly and
heroically with numerous con-
querors and invaders from the
ancient Greeks until the Iraqis
and Iranians of today for the
right to live in the land which
has historically been home to
the Kurds alone.
"Yet, with the exception of
one brief interlude in modern
times, the Kurds have always
been denied statehood and
autonomy. Parts of Kurdistan
have been ruled, at various
times, by Turkey, Iran, Iraq
and the Soviet Union, among
others. Despite the fact that
this territory has been home
only to the Kurds, their
neighbors have coveted, and
taken by force, their ancient
homeland, and have refused to
grant the Kurds even a small
measure of autonomy.
"After World War I, the
Treaty of Sevre recognized the
Kurds' right of an autonomy in
Kurdistan, but upon expiration
of the treaty, the world once
again forgot them. When the
Kurds rebelled in quest of their
rights of autonomy in their
homeland, they were repeated-
ly and ruthlessly suppressed.
"The atrocities currently
being committed against them
by the Iranian regime in the
name of religion are only the
latest in a long history of suf-
fering. Yet the world remains
silent. Why is their quest for
autonomy and `self-
determination' of no concern
to the moral leaders who
clamor for the 'rights' of PLO
murderers? Even the cold-
blooded public murder of
Kurds as 'traitors to Islam' for
their crime of national pride is
ignored by a world more con-
cerned with a false issue.
"Palestinian Arabs are not
of an indigenous ethnic
background. They are an in-
distinguishable part of the
large Arab nation, with a
culture and language identical
to the Arabs of Lebanon, Syria,
Jordan and the Persian Gulf.
They had, for more than 2,000
years, lived throughout the en-
tire Middle East. No territory
was distinctly occupied or
claimed by them, nor did they
ever, throughout years of
foreign domination, fight for
any land. Most were drawn to
Palestine, beginning with the
latter part of the 19th centur
after Jewish settlers ma
Palestine more prospero
than any other area of the Mid-
dle East.
"When Great Britain
assumed the Palestinian Man-
date (which included both
what is today Israel and Jor-
dan) after World War I, it was
with the intention, ultimately,
to divide this territory between
the Palestinian Jews and the
Palestinian Arabs, to become a
homeland for each. The 80 per-
cent of this land which was
designated for the Arabs is
known today as the Kingdom
of Jordan.
"The remaining 20 percent
of Palestine, which is today the
Continued on Page 40