Tensions have resurfaced between Turkey and Israel,
with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticising the “racist and discriminatory” treatment
of Palestinians.
Israel responded by summoning the Turkish ambassador
and condemning Ankara’s human rights record.
Erdoğan, Turkey’s president, denounced Israeli
practices during an address in Istanbul on Monday night, describing the
blockade of Gaza as having “no place in humanity”.
He urged Muslims to visit the al-Aqsa mosque in
Jerusalem as a means of supporting the Palestinian cause and called for the
establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem.
Erdoğan also condemned a Knesset (Israeli parliament)
bill to muffle the azan, the Muslim call to prayer, in Israel and occupied East
Jerusalem.
“If you have faith in your religion, why are you
afraid of the azan?” he said. “We will not allow the azan to be stopped in
al-Quds [the Arabic name for Jerusalem].”
The Israeli foreign ministry responded with an
apparent reference to Ankara’s crackdown on dissidents after a coup attempt
last July.
The Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, during a meeting
with the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in Jerusalem, said in response
to Erdoğan’s remarks: “We have heard voices which attack Israel for building
Jewish life in Jerusalem.
I must tell these people, for the last 150 years there
has been a Jewish majority in Jerusalem, since 1850. Even under the Ottoman
empire, there was a Jewish majority in Jerusalem.
“There is no doubt, Jerusalem is a microcosm of our
ability to live together. And we will continue to ensure freedom of religion
for all faiths.”
NAN
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