Alby Kurden

We hear “free Palestine.” Why do we never hear “free Kurdistan?” The Kurds are much larger, numbering roughly 30–40 million, speak their own distinct language, and their national identity in the region goes back centuries. In 1919, Şerif Pasha submitted a formal memorandum to the Paris Peace Conference proposing a Kurdish mandate or independent Kurdistan out of the defeated Ottoman Empire. But none was awarded. They have endured chemical weapons attacks and the Anfal genocide under Saddam Hussein, plus decades of repression in Turkey, Syria, and Iran. Palestinian Arabs, by contrast, were nothing close to a cohesive national people in 1919, their numbers are a fraction of the Kurds’, and their leadership repeatedly rejected statehood offers. Yet campus encampments, street marches, and celebrity campaigns fixate almost exclusively on one and ignore the other. Why do you think that is?