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Arab-Israeli ISIS fighter tells BBC that Israel is just, unlike Syria’s Bashar Assad

Captured fighter Sayyaf Sharif Daoud: Israel isn’t nearly as bad as Assad’s regime; Israel treats Arabs justly, equally to Jews.

Sayyaf Sharif Daoud, a captured ISIS fighter who holds Israeli citizenship, speaks to BBC Arabic correspondent Feras Kilani on July 16, 2019. (MEMRI)
Sayyaf Sharif Daoud, a captured ISIS fighter who holds Israeli citizenship, speaks to BBC Arabic correspondent Feras Kilani on July 16, 2019. (MEMRI)

Sayyaf Sharif Daoud, a captured Islamic State fighter who holds Israeli citizenship, told BBC correspondent Feras Kilani on BBC Arabic (UK) earlier this month that he had joined ISIS instead of the Palestinian resistance because his experience of having lived through the Second Intifada, and living in the West Bank and in Israel had taught him that Israel “has not done 1 percent of what [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad has done.”

He explained that despite the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, Israelis have never raped women or killed people brutally like those affiliated with the Assad regime.

Daoud also said that his father had warned him against joining Hamas and Fatah, and expressed regret at having joined ISIS. He said he hopes that Israel will take him back so that his life can return to normal.

He added that Israel is a democracy in which he has not seen injustice, and in which Arabs and Jews live together and are treated equally.

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“This is our homeland,” the Israeli prime minister said. “It’s called Judea. That’s where Jews come from. We’ve been attached to it for thousands of years.”