In May 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at
the opening ceremony of a two-day conference in Istanbul called “The
International Forum on al-Quds Waqf.” He condemned “Israeli crimes against the
Palestinians” and called on Muslims to visit the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple
Mount as frequently as possible. “As a Muslim community, we need to visit the
al-Aqsa Mosque often,” he said. “Each day that Jerusalem is under occupation is
an insult to us.”
On July 20, 2017, responding to
increased security measures on the Temple Mount following the murders of two
Israeli policemen there at the holy site, he said: “Any restriction on Muslims
entering the al-Aqsa Mosque is unacceptable…The protection of the Islamic
character and sanctity of al-Quds [Jerusalem] and al-Haram al-Sharif [the
al-Aqsa Mosque complex] is important for the whole Muslim world…The Muslim
world cannot remain silent.”
In his capacity as term chairman
of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Erdoğan condemned Israel’s
supposed prevention of Muslims’ performing Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa
Mosque. While extending condolences to those killed during the violent clashes
in Jerusalem, he assailed the use of “excessive force” by Israeli security
forces against those who had gathered for Friday prayers.
“The OIC was founded in 1969
during an attack on al-Haram al-Sharif, and today the Islamic world stands with
our Palestinian brothers with the same spirit of unity and solidarity,” Erdoğan
claimed. He said efforts to remove “restrictions on access to the al-Aqsa
Mosque” would continue in coordination with the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf,
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Jordanian King Abdullah II, whom he
phoned on July 24 to discuss the matter. At a press conference, the president’s
spokesman İbrahim Kalın asserted, “al-Aqsa Mosque is not alone. It’s not for
Israel. It belongs to the Palestinians and to all Muslims.”
Significantly,
Erdoğan referred to the three Palestinians killed in clashes with the police
over the Temple Mount security measures as “Şehitler,” or “shahids”
(“martyrs”) – though ever since the establishment of modern Turkey, that term
has been reserved for Turkish soldiers and policemen who fall in the line of
duty. It thus carries a nationalistic-secular connotation. Furthermore, with
regard to al-Aqsa, Erdoğan often uses the term “Muslims” instead of
“Palestinians.” And at the AKP meeting on July 25, Erdoğan declared that
Israel’s legal capital is Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, which is sacred to three
religions.
All these assertions, together
with Erdoğan’s earlier call for Muslims to “take responsibility” for Jerusalem,
endanger Israel’s legitimacy on the Temple Mount.
Erdoğan’s call to world Muslims
to flock to Jerusalem, and his warning that “the Muslim world cannot remain silent”,
were accompanied by vociferous protests at two Istanbul synagogues, Neve Şalom
and Ahrida. (Though the protests almost took on the proportions of sieges, no
damage was caused at either location.) On July 20, one of the protesters at
Neve Şalom said, “If you obstruct our freedom of worship there [Jerusalem], we
will obstruct your freedom of worship here.” Attacks on synagogues by Turkish
Islamist-ultranationalists are unfortunately not a new phenomenon in Turkey,
and include terror attacks at Neve Şalom in 1986 and 2003.
Moreover,
during Israel’s military confrontations with the Palestinians since the rise of
AKP, placards have been raised against Jews rather than against Israel. The
Islamist newspaper Yeni Akit, which
responded angrily to Ashkenazi synagogue officials in Istanbul who justified
IDF operations in Gaza in 2014, called for an organized rally against
synagogues. Following this call, social media networks announced an “egg
protest.” On July 22, 2014, a group gathered in front of Ortaköy Synagogue
carrying anti-Israel posters and threw eggs at the building.
The Turkish government
occasionally condemns these incidents but does nothing to prevent them. Nor,
ominously, does it distinguish between Israel and the Turkish Jewish community.
Quite the reverse, in fact: in Turkish society, Jews and Israelis are
essentially synonymous, as are antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
This way of thinking is
substantially Erdoğan’s doing. In a 2012 poll, 46% of Turks surveyed claimed
that Erdoğan’s anti-Israel statements had bolstered their own antisemitism.
The president’s half-hearted denunciation of synagogue attacks and
seldom-expressed concern for Turkish Jews are mere lip service to an insincere
attempt to draw a line between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. When Israel is
condemned as a terrorist state, Turkish Jews and Jews in general are labeled as
Turkish targets.
Yet religion is not the Turkish
government’s only calculation in its agitation against Israel. Ankara has a
great interest in creating pro-Turkish sentiment among Palestinians. Its
objective is to oust Jordan from its position as patron of the Temple Mount and
gain support on the Palestinian street at Jordan’s expense. This would be in
order to spread Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas ideology and strengthen Turkey’s
regional hegemony.
This objective is manifested by
the organization of cultural and religious events, as well as the establishment
and/or sponsoring of charity organizations, women’s organizations, youth
movements, and so on. These activities are orchestrated by the Turkish
consulate in east Jerusalem and by Turkish organizations like TIKA (Turkish
Cooperation and Coordination Agency), which started operating in east Jerusalem
in 2005.
In this context, every security
or military incident in which Israel is involved serves as another brick in the
Turkish political and religious wall against the Jewish state. As threatening
as Erdoğan’s words are to the legitimacy of Israeli rule in Jerusalem, his vile
anti-Israel/Jewish rhetoric further inflames Arabs and Muslims and strengthens
antisemitism inside Turkey. For Erdoğan, so it seems, Israel is but a useful
tool for promoting his ambitious neo-Ottoman vision.
Dr. Efrat Aviv is a lecturer in the Dept. of
Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University and a research associate
at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. She is the author
of Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in Turkey: From Ottoman Rule
to AKP (Routledge
2017).
BESA Center Perspectives Papers
are published through the generosity of the Greg Rosshandler Family.
