Today the state of Palestine claims a contention area in the Middle East. The claims constitute an area called the Gaza Strip and an area called the West Bank. The Gaza Strip borders the sea in the West, Egypt in the South and Israel in the North, while the West Bank borders Jordan in the East and Israel in the North and the South. Today the two areas claimed by the state of Palestine has no geographical borders with one another, as they are being separated by Israel. The state of Palestine is however recognized by 136 UN Member States and has since the independence of Israel in 1948, being in conflict about the different areas in the region. But which are the relations between Palestine and Kurdistan and why does some Kurds clearly support Palestine while others oppose them? Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, hit the bell button so that you don't miss any further videos from us. Also, don't forget to check out the Israel-Kurdistan relation video as well. Now without further ado, let's go into the video. Looking back at the ancient times and the history between Kurds and Palestine, we come to the conquest of Saladin, a Kurdish Muslim leader of the Islamic cause. Among many places, Saladin liberated the area of today's Palestine during the Ayyubid dynasty conquests. During the liberation of these areas, the Ayyubid rulers settled many Kurdish tribes in Palestine in order to secure the borders of their empire. Today there is a significant minority Kurds living in the cities that Palestine claims such as Hebrew, Jerusalem and Nablus. Some neighborhoods even have been named after their Kurdish inhabitants. However, the Kurds living in this area only speaks Arabic due to isolation in the Arabic speaking area. The relations between Palestine and Kurdistan today is both good and bad. Looking at the last 50 years of the conflict, we can see the tendency of how Kurdish leaders supports the Palestinian cause, for example, the cooperation between Palestine liberation organization PLO and the PKK, Kurdistan's workers party, who trained and fought together in Lebanon against Israel in the 1980s. This cooperation made it easier for Israel and Turkey to build a temporary cooperation to face what they saw as a commentary with threat. Both countries saw it therefore more important to prioritize inner security before human rights. However, since Erdogan took the power in Turkey, the religious loyalty has become much more important in Turkey. Because of this, the relation between Turkey and Israel has become worse and worse. Another example is when Jalal Talabani spoke in Kirkuk to the Kurdish people calling the city of Kirkuk the Kurdish Jerusalem. In his speech, he used Jerusalem as a metaphor for a Palestinian audience comparing it and the Palestinian-Israeli situation to Kirkuk and the Kurdish Iraqi situation. Palestine was among one of the first Arab representation in the Kurdistan region. The Palestinian Authority opened their general consulate in Erbil, 29th November 2011. In association with this, the president of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, became the first Arab leader to visit KRG. The president of KRG, Masul Barazani, expressed the opening as a hope of more Kurdish Arab cooperation in the future. Nadni Khaduri, which was the Palestinian ambassador in Kurdistan, described the meetings as a great achievement with the Palestinian people. He also commented the alleged relationships between Kurdistan and Israel, saying that it was only propaganda. The Kurdish people are today cleaved in their opinion about Palestine. Among supporters, there is two main arguments used. The religious cause and the cause of hypocrisy, when Kurds support their own independence, but not the Palestinian one. The background behind the religious cause is that both Kurds and Palestinians today mostly are Muslims. Some Kurds have to believe that there is a certain duty to help others from the same religion. However, this is hard to believe, considering that all occupants of Kurdistan is of Islamic beliefs. The other cause, hypocrisy, comes from certain Kurds who say that it isn't right to talk about human rights in one case, but denying them in another, referring to Kurdish human rights in one case and Palestinian human rights in another. Let's look at the arguments of those Kurds opposing Palestine. The first cause is the big support from Palestine towards the former dictator and Kurd killer, Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein wearing the Arab world well known for his anti-Israel stance, both by speech and by supporting several Palestinian organizations with economic and militant support. Due to this support, many Palestinians keep their loyalty towards the former president of Iraq, whom in the worldwide eyes, especially in Kurdish eyes, is known as a tyrant and a mass murderer more than a leader. In Palestine, there is even statues rising to honor Saddam Hussein. Many Kurds also forget about the Palestinian overrepresentation in Saddam's government, which were placed in Kurdish areas. This resulted in Palestinian generals and leaders to become directly responsible of thousands of Kurdish deaths. One of the most remembered Palestinian generals among these were Mulasim Wassein, general of the Iraqi forces in Slemani. The second argument of Kurds opposing Palestine is the fact that Kurds actually have been oppressed by Arabs in both Syria and Iraq, sparking a subconscious struggle against all Arabs, seeing them as a natural enemy of the Kurds. What do you think? Are the Palestinians our allies or enemies? Let us know what you think and don't miss out the video about Israel and Kurdistan relations.