Jews, Israel and the Kurds: unravelling the myth

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the triangular relationship between Jews, Israel and Kurds with a view to unravelling the myths that revolved around them. It argues that the millenarian relationship between Kurdistan’s Jews and their non-Jewish neighbours notwithstanding, the myriad of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ myths surrounding present-day Jewish-Israeli-Kurdish relations have flourished against the backdrop of a dearth of documented history of both Jewish and non-Jewish communities of pre-modern Kurdistan; the asymmetry of relations between a state actor – Israel, and a non-state ethno-national group – the Kurds; and the fact that both groups represent minorities within the larger Muslim milieu whose neighbours have delegitimized their right to national self-determination.