Tweet
AlArabiya.net, UAE
February 28, 2013 Thursday
Israel, Turkey row over Zionism deepens rift between ex-allies
Israel's prime minister accused his Turkish counterpart on Thursday of
making a "dark and false" statement by calling Zionism a crime against
humanity- a comment likely to hit efforts to repair ties between the
two former allies.
The Turkish premier's statement, made at a U.N. meeting in Vienna a
day earlier, was also condemned by the head of Europe's main
rabbinical group who called it a "hateful attack" on Jews.
"Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become
impossible not to see Islamophobia as a crime against humanity,"
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said at the U.N. Alliance of
Civilizations forum, according to Turkish media reports. Ties between
Israel and mostly Muslim Turkey have been frosty since 2010, when nine
Turks were killed by Israeli commandos who stormed their ship carrying
aid to Palestinians in Gaza, under a naval blockade.
In recent weeks, there has been a run of reports in the Turkish and
Israeli press about efforts to repair relations, including a senior
diplomatic meeting earlier this month in Rome and military equipment
transfers.
The reports have not been confirmed by either government. No one was
immediately available from Turkey's foreign ministry to comment on the
new criticism from the rabbis or from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
A statement from the Israeli premier's office said he "strongly
condemns (Erdogan's) statement about Zionism and its comparison to
Nazism."
The Zionist movement was the main force behind the establishment of
the state of Israel.
"This is a dark and false pronouncement the likes of which we thought
had passed into history," Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
Pinchas Goldschmidt, chief rabbi of Moscow and the head of the
Conference of European Rabbis, said Erdogan's criticism of Zionism
amounted to anti-Semitism.
"This is an ignorant and hateful attack on the Jewish people and
against a movement with peace at its core, which relegates Prime
Minster Erdogan to the level of (Iranian President)Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
and, to Soviet leaders who used anti-Zionism as a euphemism for
anti-Semitism," Goldschmidt said in an emailed statement.
"The irony of these comments will not be lost on the families of those
slaughtered during the Armenian genocide, a crime still not recognized
by the Turkish government," he added.
Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of committing an orchestrated campaign
of massacres against Christian Armenians during World War One.
Turkey, which was established as a republic after the Ottoman Empire
collapsed, denies those killings were genocide and says both sides
lost lives in internecine fighting during the chaos of war.
February 28, 2013 Thursday
Israel, Turkey row over Zionism deepens rift between ex-allies
Israel's prime minister accused his Turkish counterpart on Thursday of
making a "dark and false" statement by calling Zionism a crime against
humanity- a comment likely to hit efforts to repair ties between the
two former allies.
The Turkish premier's statement, made at a U.N. meeting in Vienna a
day earlier, was also condemned by the head of Europe's main
rabbinical group who called it a "hateful attack" on Jews.
"Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become
impossible not to see Islamophobia as a crime against humanity,"
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said at the U.N. Alliance of
Civilizations forum, according to Turkish media reports. Ties between
Israel and mostly Muslim Turkey have been frosty since 2010, when nine
Turks were killed by Israeli commandos who stormed their ship carrying
aid to Palestinians in Gaza, under a naval blockade.
In recent weeks, there has been a run of reports in the Turkish and
Israeli press about efforts to repair relations, including a senior
diplomatic meeting earlier this month in Rome and military equipment
transfers.
The reports have not been confirmed by either government. No one was
immediately available from Turkey's foreign ministry to comment on the
new criticism from the rabbis or from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
A statement from the Israeli premier's office said he "strongly
condemns (Erdogan's) statement about Zionism and its comparison to
Nazism."
The Zionist movement was the main force behind the establishment of
the state of Israel.
"This is a dark and false pronouncement the likes of which we thought
had passed into history," Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
Pinchas Goldschmidt, chief rabbi of Moscow and the head of the
Conference of European Rabbis, said Erdogan's criticism of Zionism
amounted to anti-Semitism.
"This is an ignorant and hateful attack on the Jewish people and
against a movement with peace at its core, which relegates Prime
Minster Erdogan to the level of (Iranian President)Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
and, to Soviet leaders who used anti-Zionism as a euphemism for
anti-Semitism," Goldschmidt said in an emailed statement.
"The irony of these comments will not be lost on the families of those
slaughtered during the Armenian genocide, a crime still not recognized
by the Turkish government," he added.
Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of committing an orchestrated campaign
of massacres against Christian Armenians during World War One.
Turkey, which was established as a republic after the Ottoman Empire
collapsed, denies those killings were genocide and says both sides
lost lives in internecine fighting during the chaos of war.