Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has “great sympathy” for Kurdish aspirations and that the world should concern itself with their wellbeing.
Netanyahu speaks at a memorial ceremony for far-right Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi, assassinated by Palestinians in Jerusalem in 2001.
Ze’evi, he says, went on a secret mission in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region in the 1960s and supervised the setting up of an Israeli army field hospital there.
“The visit made a deep impression on him,” Netanyahu’s office quotes him as saying. “He came face to face with warm expressions of support for Israel which continue to this day.
“The Kurds demonstrate national maturity and international maturity,” he adds.
“We have very great sympathy for their desires and the world needs to concern itself with their safety and with their future.”
Israel has been the only country to openly support Kurdish independence, with Netanyahu last month backing “the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to attain a state of its own.”
— AFP
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From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
