Gill or Gila Rosenberg is a Canadian–Israeli woman who became internationally known when she became the first female foreigner to join the Women's Protection Units fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Islamists claimed that Rosenberg had become an ISIL hostage, leading to significant additional press coverage. These reports proved false.
In 2009, Rosenberg was arrested, extradited to the United States, and pleaded guilty for participating in a telemarketing lottery fraud. As part of a plea bargain, she was sentenced to four years in prison in a Manhattan federal court, but later her sentence was reduced before being deported to Israel.
Joining the Kurds
Rosenberg gained international press coverage as the first foreign woman to join Kurds battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria or Iraq. According to an interview with Kol Yisrael quoted by The Jerusalem Post she decided to join the Women's Protection Units, the female counterpart of the People's Protection Units fighters, for humanitarian and ideological reasons and "because they are our brothers" who are fighting evil. Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an analyst for the Jamestown Foundation said "Rosenberg is quite popular among the Kurds, especially those sympathize with Israel’s national struggle, and the fact that the Israelis/Jews managed to create their own state, something which a lot of Kurdish nationalists aspire to." The Jerusalem Post stated that upon return to Israel she would be arrested and prosecuted, as was the case of several Israeli Arabs who joined ISIL and subsequently returned to Israel. The paper pointed out that Rosenberg also breached Israeli law by flying to Iraq, an enemy country, which Israeli citizens are forbidden to enter; the Israeli government had also cracked down on those going to fight against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. In Canada, Minister of Public SafetySteven Blaney stated that while the government "would not oppose a citizen who is willing to engage in a battle for liberty and helping the victims of barbaric crimes," he believed that "the best way to fight terrorism is to support our national law enforcement or national security agencies and eventually get involved with them." In late November 2014 militants on social media started claiming that Rosenberg has been captured, along with several other female fighters by ISIL perhaps during the Siege of Kobanî. This was denied by Kurdish officials who said she was nowhere near Kobanî. On December 1, Rosenberg updated her Facebook page, saying that she was safe. If captured, she would have been the second Israeli dual citizen, after American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff, and the first Canadian, to be held hostage by ISIL. There was also speculation that, if she had been captured, Canada might have mounted a rescue operation to retrieve her.
Return to Israel
Gill Rosenberg returned to Israel on 12 July 2015 after 6 months in Syria and Iraq.
