Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters traveling with him from Kazakhstan back to Ankara yesterday, that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu “is no longer someone we can talk to, we have crossed him out,” reported the major Turkish news outlet Anadolu Agency. He added that Türkiye was planning to bring Israel’s human rights violations and war crimes to the International Criminal Court. Netanyahu bore the primary responsibility for the violence and had “lost the support of his own citizens,” Erdogan said. “What he needs to do is take a step back and stop this,” he asserted.
Erdogan was particularly piqued by Netanyahu’s use of religious rhetoric. “What the Torah is he talking about?” Erdogan said in reference to Netanyahu’s recent remarks about Amalek, the ancient nation described in the Torah—the five books of Moses—as a staunch enemy of the Israelites. “Don’t the Ten Commandments include ‘Thou shalt not kill’ as an order?” he questioned.
He went after Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians saying Israel does not “grant them the right to live. “The occupation has become widespread after invaders whom they call ‘settlers’ were placed into the homes of Palestinians. They want to justify the war crimes committed by the Israeli army with religious rhetoric,” Erdogan said. He further stated that Ankara “is ready to act as a guarantor country for Gaza.”
Israel had withdrawn its diplomats from Türkiye earlier following the recent descent of relations between the two countries, and on Nov. 4 Türkiye announced that it had recalled its ambassador in Israel. Erdogan clarified that Türkiye was not going for a complete break in relations, however: “Completely severing ties is not possible, especially in international diplomacy,” Erdogan said. MIT intelligence agency chief Ibrahim Kalin would continue negotiations between Israel, Palestine, and Hamas to try and mediate an end to the war.
In response to this, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat called the move “another step by the Turkish President that sides with the Hamas terrorist organization.”
Hamas issued a statement praising the move and urging Erdogan “to put pressure on President (Joe) Biden and his administration” so that “humanitarian and medical help can reach our besieged people in the Gaza Strip.”
