Around 50 protesters gathered outside the US embassy in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night, their voices rising in protest against what they described as Washington’s inaction in the face of the latest massacre carried out by the Sharaa regime. This time, after months of attacks on Syrian minorities, the violence was directed at Syrian Kurds.
Several signs pointed to Israel’s close relationship with the Kurdish community. One read “Israel loves Kurdistan,” while others went further, openly calling for military action against the Sharaa regime.
“Bomb Julani now,” one banner declared. Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, seized power from the Assad regime a little more than a year ago.
The Syrian Islamist, a former al-Qaeda affiliate leader, has been widely embraced by the West despite the sectarian violence connected to his leadership and his previous status as a wanted man.
Calls for Israeli intervention were not limited to a fringe of the crowd. Protesters appeared to come from a wide range of ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Many argued that Israel’s own security was at stake if an Islamist regime with a track record of brutality towards minorities was allowed to reign unchecked along its borders. “To not see another October 7 on Haifa’s border, we need to help eachother,” one protester told the crowds.
Yehuda Ben Yosef, president of the Kurdish community in Israel, told The Jerusalem Post that he wanted both the US and Israel to do whatever was necessary to end what he described as a genocide.
“I don't know what [should be done to stop the violence],” Ben Yosef said. “But I trust Netanyahu. He will do all he can, maybe with the military military [or] maybe only say ‘if you do something, we will come and we will take our our our army to this place.’”
“We are asking our prime minister, Netanyahu, to please help the Kurds,” Ben Yosef told the crowds. “Do what you can. We know Israel is fighting with a lot of [enemies], we know it is difficult, but we must do something.
The Jewish people know what a Holocaust is, and for more days it has been a Holocaust in Rojava (The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria).”
Crowds filled the sidewalk with handwritten signs, flags, and shouted chants against Sharaa and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, while encouraging the US to finally take action to support its long-time ally, the Syrian Democratic Forces.
A shared sense of betrayal
Among Kurdish demonstrators and their allies, a shared sense of betrayal was palpable. Protesters accused Sharaa and Erdogan of terrorism, noting the former’s long history in Islamist groups and the spates of attacks against ethnic minorities by government-affiliated groups, while demanding the United States take responsibility for a community they said had long stood on the front lines against Islamist extremism.
The Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces had led the battle against the Islamic State, guarding prisons and camps holding terrorist prisoners, and enjoyed autonomy and protection from the previous Assad regime.
The protester’s anger followed fresh remarks from Erdogan, who views the SDF and several other Kurdish groups as terrorists. Erdogan said on Wednesday that the SDF must lay down their arms and disband to avoid further bloodshed.
Elyana, a political researcher, adviser to the Kurdish Jewish community, and activist, said the sense of urgency among protesters was fueled by the images and videos emerging from Syria.
“We saw videos of women who were kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. We saw videos of beheadings. We saw all kinds of crimes against humanity that are being committed right now, and we also saw the world be absolutely silent,” she told The Post.
International pressure, she said, had already forced Sharaa to agree to a ceasefire, but she warned that sustained pressure was needed to ensure it held.
Elyana noted that minorities across Syria have repeatedly been targeted, naming Druze and Alawite communities among the victims, while the Islamist group now in power has continued to carry out massacres largely unchallenged.
Although the SDF and regime forces have reached several ceasefire agreements under US pressure, both sides have accused the other of violating the terms. Only a day after one such agreement was announced, Syria accused the SDF of attacking seven of its soldiers, a claim the Kurdish force denied.
Asked what kind of intervention she wanted from the US, Elyana said she believed military support was necessary.
“I want the United States to stand very firmly next to the people that they have been calling their allies for years. I want them to stand to live up to their promises. Kurds, of course, they fought.
They fought ISIS to protect themselves, to protect the region, to protect the world, but they also fought for their liberation. They fought to be able to rule themselves democratically, to be able to speak their own language, to be able to live with their own ancient traditions and cultures,” she said.
Many protesters also expressed outrage at recent statements by US officials, including US President Donald Trump’s complimentary comments about Sharaa’s appearance. “Mr. President, hear our cry, don’t let our Kurdish allies die,” the protesters chanted.
Speaking at a news conference in Washington, Trump on Tuesday appeared to back Sharaa, saying he was "working very hard," adding that Washington was also "trying to protect the Kurds."
The US leader has previously expressed his favor toward Sharaa, describing him as a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”
Despite ongoing reports of violence by regime forces, US envoy Tom Barrack described the regime’s offer to integrate Kurdish forces into the central Syrian state as the “greatest opportunity” available to them.
He added that the original purpose of the SDF, which Washington backed in the fight against Islamic State, had largely expired and said the US had no long-term interest in remaining in Syria.
Elyana said Barrack’s remarks reflected a broader pattern. “I think he’s speaking of the Kurds like a disposable weapon that they no longer need,” she said.
For many protesters, the regime’s assault on the formerly US-backed SDF represented a profound betrayal. The Kurdish-led force spent years battling the Islamic State and, at times, al-Sharaa’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham when it was still designated a terrorist organization by Washington.
While Kurdish communities in northeastern Syria had previously exercised a degree of autonomy, protesters said the regime was now dismantling that arrangement under the banner of national unity.
“It is absolutely crazy to me that Sharaa, who was once the most one of the most wanted men by the US, who had a bounty on his head worth millions of dollars has now been legitimized as a president of a country, and now, after just slapping on a suit on to him, and after trimming his beard a little bit, we are supposed to forget that this man was a member of al Qaeda, was a member of ISIS, and so far, all of his actions in Syria prove that he is exactly what he has always been,” Elyana said. “He is a terrorist.”
The conflict has also seen thousands of Islamic State fighters released from detention after the SDF were forced to abandon the al-Homs camp, where they were guarding thousands of prisoners. "International indifference toward the issue of the ISIS terrorist organization and the failure of the international community to assume its responsibilities in addressing this serious matter" was behind the move, the SDF said on X.
SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami also told Iraqi news site Rudaw that around “1,500 ISIS militants — including both foreign and Syrian nationals — had been released” by regime-affiliated armed groups from Shaddadi prison in southern Hasaka.
Videos circulating online have purported to show widespread war crimes carried out by regime forces and released terrorists. The videos and accusations allegedly displayed the use of sexual violence, the killing and abduction of civilians, including women and children, and acts of torture.
In one video mentioned by Elyana, which was reviewed but not verified by the Post, men allegedly belonging to the regime forced a Kurdish man to bark like a dog before gouging his eyes out.
Reuters contributed to this report.