Erdoğan: Israel is harming Jerusalem’s Islamic Character
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has intervened in the continuing crisis surrounding the Jerusalem holy sites by accusing Israel of undermining the city’s “Islamic character”, in comments likely to further inflame regional tensions.
The comments by Erdoğan, which came as Muslim leaders called on Palestinians to continue prayers and protests in the city, triggered an immediate tit-for-tat with Israeli officials, who said the accusation was “absurd” and pointed to Turkey’s own human rights record.
Protests have been held each evening outside the compound housing Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque after Israel introduced new security measures, which followed the killing of two Israeli police officers at the entrance to the shrine by three Israeli Arabs.
Speaking at a conference in Ankara, Erdoğan said: “Israel is harming Jerusalem’s Islamic character ... Nobody should expect us to remain silent against the double standards in Jerusalem.” He added that Turkey “cannot tolerate” constraints placed on Muslims visiting the site during prayers.
Al-Aqsa, one of Islam’s holiest sites and a symbol for Palestinians seeking their own state, is built on a compound revered by Jews as the vestige of their two ancient temples.
The site lies in east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in a 1967 war and annexed to form part of its “eternal, indivisible” capital – a move not recognised internationally.
Hoping to calm days of unrest, Israel removed metal detectors from the entrances to the compound, put in place after the attack on 14 July, but has said it will now install advanced CCTV cameras instead.
An Israeli border police officer holds a stun grenade in his hand while Palestinian teenagers pray in the street near an entrance to al-Aqsa mosque.
An Israeli border police officer holds a stun grenade in his hand while Palestinian teenagers pray in the street near an entrance to al-Aqsa mosque. Photograph: Peter Beaumont for the Guardian
Palestinians insist that any new security measures are unacceptable.
Erdoğan’s intervention looks set to raise the temperature again, with Israel’s foreign ministry accusing Turkey of behaving as though the Ottoman empire still existed.
“It’s absurd that the Turkish government, which occupies northern Cyprus, brutally represses the Kurdish minority and jails journalists, lectures Israel, the only true democracy in the region,” said a spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon.
The evolving crisis has seen Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority suspend security cooperation with Israel on the West Bank, as well as the nightly mass protests in Jerusalem that are beginning to take the shape of a campaign of civil disobedience.
In a further development, around 120 hardline Jewish settlers have occupied a house in the old city of Hebron, citing Israel’s handling of the crisis over the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem.
Palestinian worshippers pray in a lane in Jerusalem’s old city
Palestinian worshippers pray in a lane in Jerusalem’s old city. Photograph: Peter Beaumont for the Guardian
The settlers broke into the building, which is located close to a religious site in the southern West Bank city – the Ibrahimi mosque and Tomb of the Patriarchs, a location that rivals the Jerusalem holy site for sensitivity.
The occupation of the building follows a familiar pattern of Jewish settlers and the far-right parties that support them using high-profile political events to demand concessions that favour their agenda.
Explicitly linking the crisis in Jerusalem to the legal battle over the building, the settlers issued a statement “calling on the government to boldly raise the banner of settlement and loyalty to the land of Israel. In the face of the murder of Jews, in the face of national stammering, we demand that the Israeli government enable the families to live in Beit HaMachpela [the building] immediately.”