By Dr. Mahmoud Abbas
The scandal of the Middle East lies not in the abundance of its wars, but in its self-deception. This is a region that fills its pulpits with rhetoric about the Israeli occupation of Palestine, southern Syria, and Lebanon, invoking historical rights and justice. Yet, it refuses to hear two bitter truths: that the Jewish people have a historical, religious, and political right to their state, and that the Kurdish people have a right to Kurdistan that is no less legitimate than any state born from the maps of Sykes-Picot, Lausanne, or San Remo.
Since the Saqifah [meeting], the ensuing conflict between the Ansar and the Muhajireen, through the Umayyad-Hashemite rivalry, down to the Sunni-Shia schism, and passing through the Ottoman-Safavid conflict and today’s ongoing wars, religion in the hands of empires and authorities has never been pure faith. Rather, it has been a tool for power, legitimacy, and hegemony. Disagreements did not remain merely jurisprudential or religious interpretations; they were transformed into banners of war, borders of influence, and masks for domination.
Setting aside the catastrophic and dark past—along with the scapegoating of the Kurds, Kurdistan, and the division of the countries occupying it, and subsequently Israel and the Jews—let us examine what the Safavids did to Shiism and what the Ottomans did to Sunnism. We must look at what Iran, Turkey, and certain Arab regimes have reproduced in modern forms: sectarianism when it serves the regime, nationalism when it serves the state, religion when it is suitable for incitement, and total silence when the victim is Kurdish.
What the Arab and Islamic worlds least want to hear is that Israel is not an accidental “entity” without roots, as propaganda claims. Instead, it is a state built upon a Jewish memory stretching deep into history, upon religious texts recognized by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and upon an international political trajectory that began with the Balfour Declaration in 1917, passed through San Remo in 1920 and the Partition Plan in 1947, and culminated in the declaration of the state in 1948. One can criticize Israel’s policies, reject the injustice faced by any civilian, and defend Palestinian rights; however, denying the Jewish people’s right to a state is a denial of history before it is a political stance. This reality will eventually be imposed politically and diplomatically upon Islamic regimes—both Shia and Sunni—including Iran, which claims to carry the banner of “Death to the Jews” and the elimination of Israel. A similar slogan is carried by Sunni forces—at least the extremist ones—against the regime of the Wilayat al-Faqih imams, stemming from a deep historical conflict.
The height of hypocrisy is that the very countries describing Israel as an “occupation” are themselves standing on maps drawn by major powers after World War I. Modern Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iran did not descend from the heavens; they were formed over the body of Kurdistan or re-established through international deals and the collapse of empires. Why is Israel alone considered an “entity,” while the states that partitioned Kurdistan are transformed into “sacred homelands” whose origins and crimes are never questioned?
Here, Kurdistan emerges as the truth that exposes everyone. Turkey speaks of its national security through the slogans of Sunni Islam while occupying Kurdish geography and persecuting the very name of Kurdistan. Iran, under the cloak of Shia leadership of the Islamic world, raises the slogan of the “oppressed” while suppressing Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhelat) in the name of the state, the sect, and security. Iraq did not recognize Kurdish rights until after the Anfal campaign, Halabja, and immense bloodshed. Ba’athist Syria practiced the “Exceptional Census,” the “Arab Belt,” and “Arabization,” stripping Kurds of their citizenship. Today, an extremist Sunni Syria, following the legacy of Ibn Taymiyyah, speaks of sovereignty and territorial integrity as if its unity were not built upon the denial of an indigenous people. Everyone harnesses Islam as they see fit.
In recent decades, Iran has provided the clearest example of transforming Islam into a mask. It raised the slogan “Death to the Jews”—not just as citizens of a secular state, but as followers of a divinely revealed religion. It did not utilize Palestine because it was Palestinian, but because it was the easiest path to penetrate the Arab Sunni psyche. A Shia regime that could not enter the Sunni world through the door of Wilayat al-Faqih entered through the door of Jerusalem. It utilized Hamas—a Sunni movement—to claim that Sunni Arabs failed to protect Palestine and that Shia Iran is the true bearer of the banner of “Resistance.” Yet, when it sits at the negotiating table with America, issues of sanctions, nuclear programs, funds, and maritime corridors take precedence, while Palestine recedes into the background. On the street, it is a banner; in politics, it is a card.
Turkey and the Arab world are not much different from Iran. They attack Iranian Shia expansion in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, yet remain silent regarding the Turkish occupation of Kurdish geography, Iranian suppression of Eastern Kurdistan, and the Arab states’ denial of Southern and Western Kurdistan. Islam is present when the adversary is Jewish, but absent when the victim is Kurdish. Justice becomes an obligation when Palestine is at the forefront, but is labeled “secessionism” when the Kurds demand their rights.
This is the shocking truth: occupation is not condemned because it is occupation, but because it is practiced by an adversary. When practiced by an ally or the state itself, it is rebranded as national security, national unity, and sovereignty. Thus, the Sunni Arab, the Sunni Turk, and the Shia Iranian can disagree on Palestine, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon, only to meet at a single point: preventing the Kurds from becoming an independent political force in their own land.
The tragedy of the Middle East lies neither in the existence of Israel nor in the diversity of religions and sects. It lies in the denial of rights when they do not serve our interests. The Jews have a right to their state, the Palestinians have a right to justice, and the Kurds have a right to Kurdistan. He who recognizes the right of one people while denying the right of another is not a man of principle, but a merchant of grievances. He who rejects the Jewish state in the name of history, then denies Kurdish history in the name of colonial maps, is not defending justice; he is running away from the mirror.
Kurdistan and Israel confront the region with the question it fears most: Who truly possesses the right? Who possesses the history? And who possesses the courage to recognize the right of the Other? Consequently, Israel remains unsettling because it shatters the lie of the “accidental entity,” and Kurdistan remains more dangerous because it reveals that those screaming against occupation are practitioners of it, and those speaking in the name of the Ummah (Nation) have buried an entire nation beneath their maps.
United States of America
May 6, 2026
Note: This text is translated from the original Arabic version.
Read the Arabic version: Click here
