Netanyahu, Katz slam Erdogan for again comparing Gaza to Holocaust
Turkish leader makes his comments to Muslims in NY, then goes to UN to continue berating Israel
By HERB KEINON, TOVAH LAZAROFFTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu(photo credit: TUMAY BERKIN/REUTERS AND MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was dubbed a liar by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an antisemite by Foreign Minister Israel Katz following comments he made in New York prior to addressing the United Nations General Assembly, where he continued to bash Israel. “When we look at the Nazi genocide against Jews, we look at the massacre in the Gaza Strip from the same perspective,” Erdogan told a group of Turkish citizens and Muslims at a meeting in New York, Turkey’s Anatolia News Agency reported.Netanyahu called on Erdogan to “stop lying.”“He who does not stop lying about Israel, who slaughters the Kurds in his country and who denies the awful massacre of the Armenian people – should not preach to Israel,” Netanyahu said.Katz, who is representing Israel at the UN, issued a statement saying that “there is no other way to interpret Erdogan’s crude and vile words – it is antisemitism, clear-cut. This is proof that the responsibility of Holocaust remembrance is more relevant now than ever.”As someone who systematically violates human rights, cruelly oppresses the Kurds and supports terrorist organizations like Hamas, Erdogan is the last one who can preach morality to Israel, Katz said.“Erdogan, you should be ashamed,” he added.During his meeting with Turks in New York, Erdogan said that, “no force or threat can dissuade” him and Turkey “from defending and protecting the rights of Palestine and Jerusalem.”Jerusalem, Erdogan said, is an issue that does not only concern “Muslims in Palestine, but is the honor of 1.7 billion in the Islamic world.”The Turkish president then brought his venom toward Israel to the podium at the UN, saying that Israel has continued to seize Palestinian land from 1947 until this day, and that these ambitions will be supported by the US administration’s peace plan.“Where are the borders of the State of Israel? Is it the 1947 borders, the 1967 borders or is there another border that we need to know of?” Erdogan asked, alluding to Netanyahu’s plan to expand Israeli sovereignty to West Bank settlements.The Turkish president held up four maps to illustrate his point, with the Palestinians in green and Israel in white, to demonstrate Israel’s changing border from 1947 to today.Erdogan also spoke against the US recognition of Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights.“How can the Golan Heights and the West Bank settlements be seized just like other occupied Palestinian territories before the eyes of the world?” Erdogan asked.He accused the Trump administration of wanting to destroy Palestinian statehood with its unpublished plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.“Is the aim of the initiative to promote – as the ‘Deal of the Century ’ – to entirely eliminate the presence of the state and the people of Palestine? Do you want another bloodshed?” Erdogan asked. “All actors of the international community, and in particular the UN, should provide complete support to the Palestinian people beyond more promises.”Erdogan did not speak of the refusal of the Arab countries to accept UN General Assembly Resolution 181, the 1947 partition plan that would have created both Jewish and Palestinian states. Nor did he speak of Jordan’s attack against Israel during the Six Day War – despite Israeli pleas to King Hussein to stay out of the fighting – in response to which Israel wrestled control of the West Bank.“I am quite curious: What about this map of Israel? Where is Israel? Where does the land of Israel begin and end? Look at this map: Where was Israel in 1947 and where is Israel now, especially between the years 1949 and 1967?” Erdogan said.The Turkish president then pointed to the map and said, “Look, this is 1947; The land of Palestine. There is apparently almost no Israeli presence on this land; the entire territory belongs to the Palestinians.”He said that 1947 was the year that the “Palestinian land starts shrinking and Israel starts expanding,” adding that “Israel is still expanding and Palestine is still shrinking.”He called on the UN to take action and enforce its many resolutions against Israel, as “Israel is still willing to take over the remainder of the land,” according to Erdogan.“Under this roof, we are producing resolutions without any effect, so when do you think – or where do you think – justice can prevail?” he asked.Israel and the US, he said, were busy “intervening and attacking the historical and legal status of Jerusalem, and holy sacred lands and artifacts,” Erdogan said.The Turkish leader said he supported a two-state solution on the pre-1967 line and warned the US that any other resolution would not work.“Any other peace plan other than this will never have a chance of being fair [and] just, and it will never be implemented,” Erdogan said. “Today, the Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation has become one of the most striking places of injustice.”
