Dozens of IDF reserve officers join call to provide military, humanitarian aid to Kurds

Dozens of reserve Israel Defense Forces officers have signed on to a petition calling on the state to provide military and humanitarian assistance to Kurdish fighters in northern Syria who are under attack by Turkey.

The petition is the initiative of social and political activist Yair “Yaya” Fink, a major in the IDF reserves, who said in his plea that “as Jews and Israelis we cannot stand by when another people are abandoned by their allies, and left defenseless.”

“We remember very well… what happens when the nations of the world abandon the fate of a people,” Fink wrote in his online petition.

“Israel is a country that has the means to help the Kurdish people, and now is the time do do so,” he says. Fink’s petition urged Israel to provide food, clothing, medicine, intelligence and military assistance to the Kurdish fighters.

Yesterday, Turkey launched airstrikes, fired artillery and began a ground offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria after US President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw forces from the region.

It essentially abandoned Syrian Kurdish fighters and left the US ally vulnerable to a Turkish offensive that was widely condemned around the world.