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The Israel–PKK conflict refers to the clashes between Israel and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) during the 1980s, as well as the remarks they made about each other in the previous years and the years after the clashes. Throughout its existence, the PKK maintained its Anti-Zionist stance and an opposition to Israel, as part of Abdullah Öcalan's teachings.[1]
The PKK's ideology started off as a Marxism–Leninism with a blend of Kurdish nationalism. Marxist-Leninists have a long history of hostility towards Zionism.[7] However, the PKK's ideology later shifted to Democratic confederalism, a left-wing, libertarian socialist, anti-capitalist, and internationalist ideology which also goes against Zionism.[8] Democratic confederalism aims to replace ethnostates and capitalism with administrative councils elected by locals, allowing the people to have autonomous control over themself while linking themself to other communities via a network of confederal councils. Democratic confederalism also hopes to dissolve the United Nations.[9] Abdullah Öcalan frequently stated his Anti-Zionist stance and also made negative statements towards the existence of Israel.[10] Various leading members of the PKK, such as Mustafa Karasu, Duran Kalkan, Cemîl Bayik, and Besê Hozat, have also made negative statements towards Zionism and Israel.[11][12][13]
In a comment submitted to Internationalist Commune, Mustafa Karasu confirmed the PKK's official stance on Israel:
Since the emergence of the PKK, we have been against Zionism. We compared the genocide of the Kurds in Turkey with Israeli Zionism and the Apartheid regime of South Africa. Since its founding, the PKK has fought side by side with the Palestinians. In 1982, 13 of our cadres fell in the fight against the occupation of Lebanon by Israel. The Israeli state also participated in the international conspiracy against Abdullah Öcalan, and murdered four of our comrades in Berlin. No doubt, we will never forget the support the Palestinians gave to the Kurdish people in the 1980s. Our attitude towards Zionism has always been ideological. Until today, we stand on the side of the Palestinians and all those who are fighting for a democratic solution in the region.[1]
After their expulsion from Turkey, the PKK relocated to the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon with the support of Hafiz al-Assad's Syrian government.[14] The PKK initially received training in PLO camps, although they established small training camps later. After the 1982 Lebanon War broke out, the PKK fought alongside their allied PLO and ASALA and other militants against Israel and its allied Lebanese Christian militias. The PKK ordered all of its armed units to fight against the Israeli forces, who launched an invasion in southern Lebanon. A total of 11 PKK fighters were killed during the war.[4][5] In 1986, the PKK established the Mahsum Korkmaz Academy, their largest training camp in Beqaa.[15][16] The Mahsum Korkmaz Academy remained a training camp for PKK recruits until Turkey pressured the Syrian government to make the PKK close it. The PKK eventually closed it and relocated to Damascus in 1992,[17] which it also left in 1998 when they relocated to Qandil Mountains.[18] The PLO's DFLP and PFLP deciding to shelter the PKK in Beqaa Valley had a huge impact on the ideology of the PKK's founding generation. The PKK fighters learned guerrilla warfare and had a much stronger feeling of internationalism because of their experience in Beqaa Valley.[6]
An additional 15 PKK members were captured by the Israeli army and taken to an Israeli prison built on occupied Ansar, Lebanon. Serxwebûn (PKK's official magazine) in its June 1984 edition, featured drawings and poetry from the imprisoned PKK fighters, in which they told their experiences of being beaten by an Israeli interrogators who equated Kurdistan to Arabs and Iran. The PKK claimed that Israeli interrogators had invited Turkish interrogators to abuse the PKK prisoners.[6]
After the move to Qandil, the PKK became more focused on the Kurdish-Turkish conflict against Turkey and the Kurdistan Region–PKK conflict against the KDP-dominated Kurdistan Region. Israel later confirmed their support for the KRG and a Kurdish state, but also confirmed their opposition to the PKK.[19][20]
Abdullah Öcalan later began traversing various countries, and on 15 February 1999, he was captured in Kenya on his way to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after coming back from the Greek embassy. His arrest was done by the MİT and CIA, and allegedly with help from Mossad.[21] The CIA reportedly transferred him to the MIT, who flew him to Turkey for arrest and trial.[22][23] Duran Kalkan accused the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel of working together to capture Öcalan.[24]
After his arrest, the Government of Greece entered a period of crisis, and witnessed Theodoros Pangalos, Alekos Papadopoulos, and Philipos Petsalnikos resign from their posts.[25] It was also alleged that Kenyans had warned Pangalos about the arrest four days before it happened, although Pangalos assured them that Öcalan was safe.[26]
Öcalan's arrest led to havoc across the Kurdish community and diaspora, in which they held protests in front of Greek and Israeli embassies worldwide condemning his capture. A group of PKK-supporting Kurds attempted to attack the Israeli consulate in Berlin as revenge. Israeli guards killed 3 of the Kurds and injured 16 of them. Kurds in Germany were threatened with deportation by German authorities if they continued the protests.[27][28] It was this attack which prompted Israel to increase security on all of its embassies and consulates.[29]
Israeli political Avigdor Lieberman allegedly recommended that Israel could establish relations with the PKK and arm them and fund them. The PKK rejected it and reiterated its opposition to Israel. The PKK's new leader, Murat Karayılan, also demanded that Israel apologise for their alleged involvement in the capture of Abdullah Öcalan.[30]
In 2017, Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel rejects the PKK and considers it a terrorist organization, and called on Turkey to return the favor by considering Hamas a terrorist organization.[31] Mustafa Karasu, a PKK leader, condemned the United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, and said that Jerusalem cannot be a Jewish city, but should be a city with special status in which all 3 Abrahamic religions are respected.[1] In May 2018, after the United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, protests happened at the Gaza border, in which Israeli troops killed several Palestinians. The PKK, along with HDP, condemned the killings and called for an end to using violence.[32]
About the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Murat Karayılan stated that he supports whatever ends it, even if it was a two-state solution. He also claimed that democratic confederalism could solve the conflict as well as many conflicts of the entire Middle East.[33] Duran Kalkan stated that he supports democratic confederalism to solve the conflict, not a one-state or two-state solution. He also stated his belief that democratic confederalism is the only system which will guarantee peace between all the different ethnicities and religions in the Middle East.[24]
In late 2022, a settlement was built in Afrin, a city occupied by Turkey, previously under SDF control. The settlement was made to house Palestinians, it included 75 housing complexes to house 220 families, built in the Jindires district. It drew much criticism from Syrian Kurds, especially supporters of the YPG, a group allied with the PKK.[34] Riyad Al-Malki, the Foreign Minister for the Palestinian National Authority, stated: "we reject the settlement of any Palestinian in Afrin and other Kurdish areas". He also said that the State of Palestine was uninvolved in the construction of the settlement, and that they are against anything which abuses Kurds and their land.[35] It was later discovered that an Israeli bank was helping fund the settlement of Palestinians in Afrin.[36][37]
In 2023, PKK leader Duran Kalkan compared Israel with Turkey. He said,
Three years after World War I, Turkey was established, through which the capitalist imperialist system attempted to dominate the Middle East. Three years after World War II, Israel was established, again under the lead of Britain, and Israel was included in the hegemony war waged in the region.[24]
He then said that Israel and Turkey cooperate “on the basis of a racist, chauvinist and genocidal understanding and policies”. Kalkan denied the Israeli-Turkish political tension by saying “sometimes it looks like there is contradiction and conflict between the Israeli and Turkish states, but this is a game they play to mask the reality and deceive the people.” He stated that Israel plays an active role in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict “because Jewish nationalism considers Kurdistan to be Israeli territory”. He denied that he is antisemitic.[24]
In a reaction to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's stance on the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Murat Karayılan called Erdoğan a "self-serving figure", and also claimed that Erdoğan would support anyone as long as it benefits him. He stated: "Neither our Arab people nor our Palestinian people should believe him. He is a businessman. He plays both sides. When it suits him, he is with Israel, when it suits him, he is with Palestine." Karayılan claimed that Erdoğan's stance is caused by a lack of sincerity, a lack of commitment to Islamic principles, and overall selfishness and opportunism.[38]
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