BICOM

Turkey’s President attacked Israel yesterday in speech at the opening ceremony of the International Forum on al-Quds Waqf in Istanbul.

The International Forum aims to bring together religious institutions working on Jerusalem from all over the world and to explore opportunities for cooperation.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told delegates at the event that “as a Muslim community, we need to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque often, each day that Jerusalem is under occupation is an insult to us”.

He further said: “What’s the difference between the present acts of the Israeli administration and the racist and discriminatory politics that were practiced against black people in the past in America and up until a short time ago in South Africa?”

Erdogan also criticised Israel’s proposed Muezzin law that limits the volume on Muslim calls to prayer in the early hours of the morning, said that Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip “has no place in humanity,” and warned against the US possibly moving its embassy to Jerusalem.

Yesterday, in response to Erdoğan’s speech, Emanuel Nahshon, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said that “those who systematically violate human rights in their own country should not lecture and take the moral high ground over the region’s sole real democracy”.

This morning officials in Jerusalem conveyed a message to Ankara saying that they had no interest in a diplomatic crisis.

Yesterday’s clash is the most serious incident since the two countries signed a rapprochement agreement in 2016. Prior to that, Israel and Turkey halted diplomatic relations for six years, triggered by the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident, when an attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza left nine Turkish civilians dead after a raid on their boat by Israeli commandos.

Erdoğan has a history of fiery comments against Israel. In 2012, during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, he accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and labelled it a “terrorist state,” and in a November 2016 interview with Ilana Dayan he refused to renounce a comparison he made between Israeli policies and Hitler.

Trade, economic and tourism relations have strengthened over the past few years and there are discussions over a natural gas pipeline. Turkey recently appointed a military attaché to its embassy in Tel Aviv and Israeli and Turkish companies have begun to resume security initiatives, primarily in the fields of high-tech and cyber.