Israel should back Kurdish statehood, MK Yoav Kisch proposed in a motion to the Knesset’s agenda this week, amid tensions with Turkey.

“Facing Iran’s strengthening in the region, Turkey’s extremism and the dissolution of Syria, Israel must lead and support the Kurdish effort to establish an independent state” is the title of Kisch’s motion.

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The Likud MK’s proposal comes as diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Ankara have soured, with Turkey withdrawing its ambassador in protest over Israel’s response to riots on the Gaza border, and Israel reacting in kind.

Turkey has long persecuted its Kurdish minority and violently suppressed its political aspirations, and it engaged in an offensive against Afrin, a Kurdish autonomous zone in northern Syria, earlier this year.