Israel Demands Global Condemnation After Turkish Foreign Minister’s Remarks

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar strongly condemned remarks made on Monday by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, calling them grave incitement and “a clear call for genocide.” Sa’ar made the comments during a joint press statement in Jerusalem, following a meeting at the Foreign Ministry with Rwanda’s foreign minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe.

The controversy erupted a day before the NATO summit, which is set to take place in Turkey with the participation of U.S. President Donald Trump. At the same time, Israel has conveyed to NATO member states that it expects them to unequivocally condemn the Turkish foreign minister’s remarks, in which he described Israel as “a burden on humanity.”

In his statement, Sa’ar said the remark carries especially grave significance given that Turkey is hosting the summit. He called on the civilized world and Turkey’s allies in NATO not to let the statement go unanswered, and to issue a clear condemnation.

Sa’ar said: “Regarding genocide, I must address the shocking remarks made by Turkey’s foreign minister. The foreign minister of the country that will host tomorrow’s NATO summit said of the state of the Jewish people: ‘These people have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear.’”

He went on to connect the statement to historical precedents of incitement against the Jewish people. In his words, “This is a statement that echoes very similar things we heard about a hundred years ago. To speak about a people as humanity’s problem. And what do you do with a burden that can no longer be borne? These things are a clear call for genocide.”

Sa’ar added that portraying an entire people as a global problem is a dangerous process well known from history, and warned of the consequences of such rhetoric if it is not met with international condemnation. “The Jewish people know all too well what happens when words like these are allowed to go unanswered. The first step on the road to genocide is dehumanization.”

Sa’ar’s remarks came in response to an interview the Turkish foreign minister gave to CNN Türk over the weekend. In the interview, he said that Israel had become, in his words, “an unbearable burden that humanity cannot carry,” and described it as a global problem. He also claimed that Israel is trying to create a new enemy for itself in order to change its image, adding that Ankara would not be deterred from confronting it.