AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Since late 2020, Turkey several times expressed readiness to resume ties with the Israeli regime and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a meeting with the Jewish community of Turkey and the members of Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States called the relations with Tel Aviv vital and vowed to normalize Israeli-Turkish ties. Erdogan's green light for the Israelis prompted Isaac Herzog visit to Turkey on March 9 at Erdogan's official invitation– a visit that provoked massive reactions, regardless of the sensitivity of the Turkish public to the Palestinian cause.
From hostile rhetoric to extending hand of friendship
With Herzog's visit to Turkey, presidents of Turkey and the Israeli regime met after 14 years. The meeting comes as Erdogan government recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv in 2018 in protest to the relocation of the Israeli capital from Tel Aviv to Al-Quds (Jerusalem), and protested when the UAE and three other Arab states initiated normalization process with the Israeli government.
Tensions and challenges such as the Turkish government's protest against Israeli actions against settlement projects and atrocities against the Palestinians, and Tel Aviv's dissatisfaction with Turkey for its support of Hamas and its permission to the Palestinian group's activities in Ankara have led to frayed ties between the two sides.
But despite such tensions, factors such as Turkey's economic crisis and the country's regional and international isolation have made the resumption of political relations with Tel Aviv an accessible option for the Turkish government. By officially inviting the Israeli president to visit Turkey, the country seems to have buried its decade-long hostile relations with the regime and abandoned its rhetoric in support of Palestine.
Home and foreign reactions to meeting
Herzog's visit to Turkey is the first of an Israeli president since 2008, with Erdogan calling it a historic visit.
"I believe this historic visit will be a new turning point in Turkey-Israel relations,” Erdogan told a news conference at the presidential palace.
But unlike the government, the political parties and people of this country, due to the special place of Palestine among the country's public, considered this Erdogan's invitation of the Israeli president as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause by issuing statements and taking to the streets to protest the visit.
When Herzog arrived, people set fire to Israeli flags, which had been raised in the streets to welcome him. Protesters have been protesting in Ankara, Istanbul, Gaziantep, and many other cities since Wednesday, raising flags of Palestinian movements and posters of Iran's General Qassem Soleimani and chanting "death to America", "death to Israel" "bless jihad, and" bless Hezbollah."
Meanwhile, some Turkish parties, such as Felicity Party, issued a statement condemning the meeting. The party called the normalization of relations with the Israeli regime a "betrayal of the Palestinians", adding "while we were expecting a visit to Gaza the president promised to make in 2013, inviting the murderers to our country is by no means acceptable."
"What has changed today? What happened that such an invitation was made? How is Herzog different from Netanyahu? Has persecution of our Muslim brothers in Palestine ended? Was Gaza siege lifted? We reject such abnormally under the title of normalization. Those who bomb Al-Quds and Gaza, trample our first qibla in Al-Aqsa Mosque with their dirty boots, and massacre the oppressed, including children, women and the elderly, have had and will have no place in our country. You took another embarrassing step today. Neither these holy lands nor the chest of this nation will accept any aggression and aggressor! We will not remain silent until the Turkish president realizes which lands he rules. If your relations with Israel are normalizing, know that relations with Palestine and the Muslims who have been bombed with white phosphorus in Gaza will be abnormal."
The Felicity Party supporters gathered in Eminonu Square in Istanbul protesting the visit and carrying posters reading "we do not accept Herzog in our country."
Meanwhile, Palestinian resistance groups were among the main opponents of the trip and issued statements expressing their opposition and regret over the visit. Gaza-based Hamas reiterated its "strong opposition" to the resumption of Turkey's relations with the Israeli regime and called for greater support for the Palestinian people to end the occupation and "regain deprived rights."
"We deplore these trips to the Muslim and Arab countries, which are the strategic depth of the Palestinian people and its cause, and reaffirm our principal stance against any relationship with the Zionist enemy which has desecrated our sanctities, and seeks to Judaize Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Mosque, continues to besiege the residents of Gaza and aggression against them, captures thousands of people, kills children, destroys Palestinian homes, and displaces this nation," Hamas statement read.
Islamic Jihad, too, issued a statement, saying it strongly condemns receiving the Israeli leaders in Turkey, adding that the trip is taking place against the backdrop of Israeli abuses and crimes, the plans for Judaization of Palestinian sanctities, and violations of Israel settlers against the Palestinians.
"This [invitation] means bias for enemy against the Palestinian people's struggle. Trying to re-establish relations with the Zionist enemy under the pretext of the interests of this or that state means abandoning Al-Quds and Palestine and betraying them. This visit took place in the shadow of the intensification of the hostile actions of the Zionists against the people of Al-Quds and the enemy's plans to Judaize the holy places and the illegal entry of the settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque."
Additionally, Islamic figures also reacted to the visit. Sheikh Issam Talymah, a Sunni scholar close to the top Sunni scholar Sheikh Youssef Qaradhawi–who is close to Erdogan– in a Twitter message wrote: " Tell Erdogan that according to Sheikh Qaradhawi's fatwa anybody who shakes hands with these people has to clean hands with waters of seven seas."
The International Union of Muslim Scholars was another side to condemn the visit, describing it a step forward to normalization in best interest of the Israeli regime and against Palestinian pro-liberation struggle.
Moreover, Islamic Movement of Afghanistan called Herzog's visit a cover-up to Erdogan's inefficient policies and an affirmation of all Israeli crimes in Palestine and all Muslim world. It asked the Muslim nations to take appropriate and timely reactions to such moves by Muslim world leaders.
In conclusion, Erdogan's invitation of Herzog cast serious doubt on the credibility of his pro-Palestinian liberation rhetoric and bore witness to the fact that Ankara, like Arab monaechies, seeks to normalize with Tel Aviv and reduce the Palestinian cause as a regional and Islamic case to a purely Palestinian issue.
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