Thawaiba Kanafani, a Damascus-born engineer and solar energy expert who lives in Toronto, has joined the Syrian Free Army rebels, according to Shalom Toronto.

Kanafani appears in a Youtube video embedded below, dressed in military fatigues and flanked by 20 armed men, and enumerates in Arabic the reasons that led her to return to Syria and join the fighting against the Alawite regime.

"I was born in Syria, and I have come from Canada in response to the homeland's call, and I hereby announce my volunteering to the Free Army and my joining the Haleb Battalions of the Al Sham Brigade."

"I wish to address the free people in Syria to call on them to volunteer without delay to the ranks of the Free Army in order to work hand in hand with our brothers the mujahidoon, and to fight Assad's gangs, which have shed our blood freely and whose hands have been light on the trigger in committing crimes that did not differentiate between a child, and elderly person, a man or a woman."

Shalom Toronto notes that Kanafani's views on Israel are diametrically opposed to those of the insurgents, who identify with extremist Islam. In late 2011 she established the "Peace Party" that opposes all forms of violence and war.

In its platform, the party states that "The Palestinians have the right to live on their land and the Israelis have the right to live in peace on their beloved land." It calls on 'Palestinians' living in Lebanon to move to Syria and build a better future for themselves.

Kanafani blames the Assad regimes' intransigent stance vis-à-vis Israel for the continued state of war between the countries. The Israelis "are not stupid," she says on her website, and they understand that retreating to the Kinneret as Assad demands would mean that Syria controls their main source of water.

Israelis fail to understand that Assad's long-range plan is to wait for Iran to acquire nuclear arms, and then for Syria to conquer the entire region, including Israel.

She said that establishing Israel "on the bodies of Palestinians" was not just, but added that this was "a mistake" made by its leaders who had come out of the European Holocaust, and that Israel has corrected the mistake and offered the Palestinians peace and citizenship.