Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Afrin

Thursday, September 08, 2022

Palestinians funding illegal settlements -- in Kurdistan

You know how Palestinians say that occupation and settlements are the worst human rights abuses in world history?

It appears that they mean "only if done by Jews."

A delegation of Kurds from Afrin visited the Palestinian Consul in Erbil, Nazmi Hazouri, and handed over a letter of protest of a Palestinian foundation building housing units for displaced Syrians in Afrin.

Levant 24 reported that the Palestinian organization Wafaa al-Mohsenin Charitable Foundation delivered 34 housing units to displaced Syrian Arabs in Jindires, in Afrin.

The organization says the project is funded by “the donation of the people of Al-Zaeem village in the city of Jerusalem”

Turkish-backed factions have occupied Afrin since March 2018, when the Turkish Army launched a cross-border offensive against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Kurds used to make up 96 percent of Afrin's population, but now represent only 25 percent after 2018, over two dozen organizations said in a letter last year.

In a letter, handed over to the Palestinian Consul, the delegation complained over the fact that the demography of Afrin have been changed since 2018, and the orignal people of Afrin have been replaced by Arabs and Turkmens, with the aim of Arabizing the region.

Also two years ago, there were reports that said a Palestinian NGO called “Association for Living with Dignity for the 48 Palestinians” funded Turkish NGO Beyaz Eller to construct a mosque in the Tal Tawil village in Afrin.

In a report released on 6 May 2021, the Syria Justice and Accountability Center, focuses on the role of "Kuwait and other regional governments in financing Turkish-led reconstruction efforts on land in Afrin belonging to displaced Kurdish populations."

The Syria Justice and Accountability Center said the "foreign-funded housing projects are desperately needed to meet the humanitarian needs of IDPS currently residing in the area."

But it noted that the "the manner of their implementation means that they are also contributing to processes of demographic change that many have seen as the explicit intent of Turkey and its proxies."

"By funding the construction of settlements that hinder the return of the original residents displaced by Turkish-backed forces, foreign donors may be complicit in the forced transfer of populations – a crime against humanity under international criminal law," the report concluded.