Israel bill considers Kurdish areas ‘not enemy’ soil

Zionist Union party MK Ksenia Svetlova has announced a bill considering areas controlled by Kurds “not enemy” soil during a Knesset session dedicated to discussing Israeli-Kurdish relations, Quds Press reported yesterday.

The bill seeks to exclude Israelis who travel to the Kurdish-held areas for religious or commercial purposes from being questioned when they return to Israel.

According to the Times of Israel Svetlova said that the bill aimed to ease access to Kurdish-controlled territory for “Israelis who want to be there for academic or commercial purposes or visiting graves of their loved ones”.

There are currently some 200,000 Kurdish Jews living in Israel. They emigrated from Iraq after the creation of Israel in 1948.

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In a copy given to the Times of Israel the bill does not differentiate between Kurdish-controlled areas in Iraq or those in Syria and Iran, but seeks to make it easy for Israelis to travel to Kurdish areas in Iraq. Svetlova said that the bill might expand to cover areas in Syria and Iran in the future.

On 25 September the Kurdish region in Iraq held a referendum calling for its independence but it was rejected internationally and regionally. The only official in the Middle East who supported it was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.