By
Reuven Eliaz and William Reed
On June 28, Turkey and Israel signed an agreement to resume full
diplomatic relations six years after a Turkish organization, İnsan Hak ve
Hürriyetleri ve İnsani Yardım Vakfı (The Foundation for Human Rights and
Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief), or İHH, attempted to break Israel’s
naval blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza.
That blockade
was later ruled completely legal under international law by a United Nations
panel, which cited “serious questions about the conduct, true nature and
objectives of the flotilla organizers, particularly İHH.”
The incident
dates back to May 2010, when İHH assembled a fleet of six ships carrying 663
activists from 37 nations and set sail for Gaza with the express intent of
running the blockade — by force if necessary.
“And we
say, if you send the commandos, we will throw you down from here to the sea and
you will be humiliated in front of the whole world,” the İHH president
publicly warned Israel.
On May 31, as
the flotilla approached, the Israeli navy directed them to the port of Ashdod,
where they could unload their cargo for inspection before it would be
transported over land to Gaza. After the İHH organizers rejected that
compromise (“Go back to Auschwitz,” one of them snapped back at the Israeli
radio operator), Israeli naval commandos boarded the flagship of the fleet, the
Mavi Marmara, and were immediately attacked by about 40 Turkish “activists”
armed with metal pipes and knives.
In the struggle
that inevitably ensued, nine Turks were killed, including one with dual
American citizenship. The non-Turkish passengers onboard the other ships
offered no or only symbolic resistance.
After the
accord with Israel was signed, Turkish president Recip Tayyip Erdogan, prime
minister at the time, chided the İHH and said the flotilla set sail without his
permission.
“When you launch a flotilla you need to ask,” he was quoted
saying on June 29 in the Daily Sabah (widely recognized as an
Erdogan government mouthpiece), as if he were washing his hands from his
personal involvement and blame.
However,
Erdogan’s former statements about the State of Israel and Israelis cannot be
washed from the record.
The newspaper Vatan reported that on July 18,
2014 Erdogan spoke with the press about the then-ongoing Israel-Hamas war,
Operation Protective Edge. That military operation began as a result of
unprovoked Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli cities and infrastructure, which in
and of itself was a blatant war crime.
While Hamas and
other radical Islamic terrorist organizations openly call for the mass murder of
Jews and attack Israeli civilians to further that aim, they are never held
responsible and it is Israel that is blamed for acting in self-defense.
The world
demands restraint only from Israel while expecting nothing from Hamas. Turning
a blind eye to Hamas’ genocidal aims is equivalent to demanding that unlimited
numbers of Israelis lose their lives every day. Meanwhile, those who plot mass
murder grow even more murderous and destructive.
Yet Erdogan takes this twisted morality one step further, saying:
The state that
knows best how to kill children is Israel. The obvious reality is that Israel
is the country that threatens peace in the world and in the Middle East. Israel
has never been pro-peace. It has persecuted [people] and continues the
persecution.
We as Turkey
and myself – as long as I am in charge – can never have a positive view of
Israel. I and my administration will never look at this issue positively as
long as we are in power.
Israel is
carrying out a genocide now… Israel does not want a national unity government
between Hamas and Fatah. Another step Israel takes is to attempt to isolate
Hamas in its talks with Egypt. The party [to the talks], however, is Hamas,
Gaza, Palestine; [not Egypt].
On July 19, 2014, CNN Turk covered Erdogan’s presidential campaign speech
in the Black Sea city of Ordu. Under a banner emblazoned with the unambiguous
slogan “Down with Israel,” Erdogan said (among other lies about Israel):
“The terror
state Israel once again attacked Gaza. It started murdering innocent children,
women, human beings and children playing on the beach.
They [Israelis]
made a t-shirt. On it is the photo of a pregnant Muslim woman with a burqa.
Below the photo is written: ‘One fire, two shots.’ That means ‘shoot at the
belly of the Muslim woman so that [you will waste] one bullet but take two
lives.’ This is vile, despicable, and dishonorable. I hate them, I curse them
On July 31, 2014, Erdogan posted on his
Twitter account: “The genocide that Israel perpetrates is no
different from what Hitler did. What Hitler did yesterday, Israel is doing
today.”
On March 19, three Israelis and one Iranian were murdered in the
suicide bombing attack in Istanbul’s Taksim district. Upon receiving the news
about Israeli deaths, hundreds of Turkish Twitter users burst with happiness
reported the Turkish news site Avlaremoz, which covers Jewish-related affairs.
The tweets
below are representational of their tone:
Israelis, I
wish you croaked. I will s*** on your dead bodies. I will spit on the faces of
those who call you humans. Instead of an Iranian being dead, I wish the entire
Israel and all Israeli creatures were torn to pieces but did not die and would
eternally remain in the death agony – not that I like Iran…
If he
[the perpetrator] had gathered all Israelis and conducted a wholesale
cleansing, our faces would be smiling after all that news of our martyrs. But
this smile also feels good.
3 of
those who died in the explosion are from Israel. How can I be sad now?
I am happy that
I heard about Israeli bastards. Bloodless fags. That is how you suffer the
consequences of what you have done.
According to a 2014 Pew poll,
Israel was the most hated country in Erdogan’s Turkey: 86% of responders had an
unfavorable opinion of Israel, while only 2% viewed it positively.
Of course, this hatred is not caused solely by Erdogan’s
statements about Israel. He exploits the native anti-Jewish prejudice inherent
in Islam’s traditional view of the Jew as a dhimmi, a
“protected” but unequal minority whose adherence to an inferior religion
perpetually subjects it to second-class political status.
This is the grim result when Jew-hating teachings in Islamic
scriptures are combined with the Jew-hating statements by irresponsible Turkish
state authorities, political circles, Islamists masquerading as humanitarians,
and particularly by an unethical,sycophantic local media.
Reuven Eliaz served from 1988 to 1996 in the Israel Government
Press Office. The opinions he expresses are his own and do not necessarily
reflect those of the Israeli government.
William Reed is a human rights activist and a student of Turkish
language and history.
