Israel Slams ‘rights Violator’ Erdogan over Jerusalem Remarks

Israel lashed out at “serial human rights violator” Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the Turkish president on Monday accused the Jewish state of apartheid practices in seeking to infringe Muslim practices.

“Whoever systematically violates human rights in their own country should not preach morality to the only true democracy in the region,” said Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.

“Israel consistently protects total freedom of worship for Jews, Muslims and Christians — and will continue to do so despite the baseless smears launched against it,” he said in a statement.

Earlier on Monday, Erdogan had vowed to prevent a draft bill being advanced in Israel that would prevent the use of speakers mounted on minarets to summon Muslims for prayer overnight.

The bill, which was approved by ministers in February but has yet to be adopted by parliament, would apply to mosques in Israel as well as annexed Arab east Jerusalem, but not to the highly sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site.

 

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