Islamophobia is as much a crime as anti-semitism, Turkey's PM and presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared, as Israel's assault on Gaza continues.
Erdogan's comments on Friday came after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu called him an anti-semite for saying there was no difference between Hitler's holocaust of the Jews and the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking at an inaugural ceremony marking the launch of a high-speed train service in the central Anatolian Turkish city of Eskisehir on Thursday, Erdogan said: "I am perhaps the first prime minister in the world to oppose anti-semitism, while Israeli PM Netanyahu and others are trying to depict me as an anti-semite.
“Israeli barbarism and massacres continue in Gaza, and the Western world, especially, is still supporting the aggressor.”
“The world is sitting idle when the bloodshed of innocent Palestinian infants and children continues at the hands of Israel,” he added.
- 'Sustained brutalities'
Erdogan criticized the attitude of the Egyptian authorities for blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza.
He said: “We are not able to take even medical supplies and food to the people of Gaza under the sustained brutalities.”
In a speech earlier on Thursday, Erdogan said that the military coup to oust Egypt's first democratically elected President, Muhammad Morsi, last summer was staged to facilitate the current Israeli onslaught on Gaza.
Egypt has continuously closed the Rafah border gate – Gazans only way to reach the outside world – and shut it completely during the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza.
The latest deaths bring to 828 the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel's onslaught on the besieged coastal territory, which began on July 7.
- Major offensive
At least 5,300 Gazans have also been injured, most of them critically.
According to official Israeli figures, 35 Israelis – 33 soldiers and two civilians – have been killed since hostilities began almost three weeks ago.
Israel's operation "Protective Edge" is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populated Gaza Strip, which is home to about 1.8 million Palestinians, within the last six years.
In 2008-09, over 1,500 Gazans were killed – the vast majority of them civilians – during Israel's three-week-long operation "Cast Lead".
http://www.aa.com.tr/en
