Canadian-Israeli Who Joined Kurds in Fight Against ISIS Returns, May Face Charges

Gill Rosenberg, a Canadian-Israeli woman who traveled to Syria and Iraq to join Kurdish forces in their fight against ISIS last November, returned to Israel late on Sunday. Rosenberg, who made aliyah in 2006, told Galatz (Israeli Army radio) why she decided to leave the war zone and come home: “It was a difficult decision to leave my friends in the fighting but the many of the dynamics of the war have changed and there is much more Iranian involvement. Things changed enough to make it feel it was time to come home, and my home is Israel.”

Rosenberg, 31, told Ynet that she was inspired to protect the Kurds and other minorities in the Middle-East suffering under ISIS because of the legacy of the Holocaust: “As Jews we say never again, as far as a Holocaust or genocide,” she said. “I don’t think there is any difference between Jews and anyone else, never again means never again for anyone.”

The homecoming closes another colorful chapter in Rosenberg’s life in the Middle-East. Since she immigrated to Israel in 2006, she’s been arrested, extradited to the U.S., served time in an American prison, returned to Israel, trained with Kurdish militants, and was believed to be an ISIS hostage. Somehow, she has managed to come through it all in one piece.

After Rosenberg moved to Israel, she joined the IDF as a volunteer for the Israeli army’s search-and rescue-unit. However, as Reuters reported, in 2009, Rosenberg was arrested in Israel and extradited the U.S. where she was tried for her involvement in an international phone scam, in which Rosenberg and her co-conspirators demanded thousands of dollars from seniors after telling them they had won the lottery. (The FBI report states that $8 million was stolen in a “Lottery Telemarketing Fraud Scheme.”) Rosenberg, who plead guilty, was handed a four-year sentence, although she was released on Nov. 27, 2013, “on condition that she remain paroled either on U.S. or Israeli soil,” Reuters reported.

A year later Rosenberg managed to slip into Syria, a country Israelis are banned from entering. In a teary interview with Israel’s Channel 2, she said she wanted to vindicate herself: “For me, it was kind of like seeking redemption, or something, for my past.”

In 2014, The Jerusalem Post, in a profile of Rosenberg, quoted the following information as perhaps shedding “more light on her motivation to join the war:”

She was born in Vancouver, Canada, and experienced a family crisis after her parents divorced. In an interview with Ma’ariv in 2009, she said that already at the age of 22 she was pursuing a promising career as a pilot of Boeing passenger planes, but decided to leave everything behind and make aliya in 2006. In Israel, she joined the IDF, serving as an instructor for Kenyan soldiers…

Rosenberg told Ynet that she used Jordan’s international airport to get to the Irbil airport in the Kurdish region of Iraq, and from there entered the war-torn country from which a reported 4 million citizens have become refugees.

Shortly after Rosenberg arrived in Syria and began training with Kurdish militants, it was believed that she had been captured by ISIS after information about her and other female fighters appeared on a number of Islamist sites and blogs. But at the start of December, Rosenberg quashed these rumors through her Facebook page, announcing that she was safe, adding that she had very little access to Internet or any other form of communication. According to the JTA, Rosenberg left Syria in January and moved to Iraq to continue fighting with the Dwekh Nawsha, a Christian militia group.

On Monday, Rosenberg described to Israel’s Army Radio how she took part “some pretty major firefights” with Islamic State insurgents who were firing from just a mile away. The JTA reported that she kept her Jewish identity concealed from the Kurds she was fighting with, telling them she was just Canadian. According to Ynet, Rosenberg’s return was coordinated by American–Israeli entrepreneur Moti Kahana, who was also involved in the unsuccessful attempt to bring back Steven Sotloff. She was questioned by Shin Bet upon her arrival in Tel Aviv airport, but a “justice official” told Reuters criminal charges would not likely be pursued.

In the Ynet interview she said about her return to Israel: “It’s good to be home. I’m here for now, and don’t plan on going back there anytime soon.”

Before heading back to Tel Aviv, she spent a week in Paris, reported JTA. Yesterday, Rosenberg updated her Facebook profile photograph to dozens of congratulatory comments.

However, according to Reuters, her previous criminal conviction may end up biting her in the back. “I believe she may have violated this by going to Syria,” Ben-Oved, Rosenberg’s lawyer, told Reuters. “This could be a problem for her.”

The U.S. is currently investigating whether Rosenberg violated parole by leaving Israel for Syria.

Related: What Kurdish Independence Would Mean
The Good Left, The Seedy Left, and the Kurds
The Life and Death of Steven Sotloff, Part 2