Riyaz Patel
Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted the Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, taking a leaf from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 2012 playbook at the UN by holding up images to illustrate his point.
Erdogan castigated Israel for its “unlawful expansionist policies” in the occupied territories, brandishing a famous time-lapse map showing facts and figures of a “shrinking” Palestine and the Zionist regime’s gradual encroachment of Palestinian land.
“The Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation has become one of the most striking places of injustice,” he told world leaders. “Israel, which was almost non-existent in 1947, has continued until this day to seize Palestinian land with the aim of eliminating the state.”
“How can the Golan Heights and the West Bank settlements be seized just like other occupied Palestinian territories before the eyes of the world? Is the aim of the initiative to promote, as the Deal of the Century, to entirely eliminate the presence of the state and the people of Palestine? Do you want bloodshed?” Erdogan thundered in New York.
Angered by Erdogan’s comments, Netanyahu posted a video on Twitter to attack the Turkish leader, telling him to “stop lying,” without explaining which parts of Erdogan’s comments were factually wrong.
The Turkish leader further censured Israel’s disregard of “human values and international law,” which, Erdogan said is reflected in the regime’s “acts of aggression such as the inhuman blockade in Gaza, illegal settlements and attacks against the historical and legal status of Jerusalem (al-Quds).”
Erdogan went on to call for “the immediate establishment of an independent and homogeneous Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital is the solution.”
The Turkish President also said that nuclear weapons should either be allowed for all states or banned completely, warning that the “inequality” between nations that have nuclear power and those who do not is upsetting global balances.
Turkey signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1980, and has also signed the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear detonations for any purpose.
Secret South African documents released in 2010, signed by former apartheid president PW Botha, revealed that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state’s possession of nuclear weapons.
Erdogan has hinted in the past that he wanted he same protection for Turkey as Israel, which foreign analysts say possesses a sizeable nuclear arsenal.
Tel Aviv has consistently maintained a policy of ambiguity around the nuclear arms issue, refusing to confirm or deny its capabilities.
