Turkish-Israeli relationship heads toward new tensions

Tabnak – The war of words has been ratcheted up between high-ranking Turkish and Israeli officials, raising the potential for new tensions between the two states. The development comes after the Zionist soldiers opened fire on unarmed Palestinians, killing over a dozen of peaceful protesters in Gaza.

In this vein, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a “terrorist and occupier.” "Hey Netanyahu! You are occupier. And it is as an occupation that you are on those lands. At the same time, you are a terrorist," Erdogan said in a televised speech in Adana, southern Turkey, on Sunday.

Earlier on Saturday, the Turkish president had "strongly condemned Israel for its inhumane attack" against the Palestinian people. "Have you heard any noteworthy objections to the massacre by Israel that happened yesterday in Gaza from those who criticize the Afrin operation?," Erdogan said during a speech in Istanbul.

For his part, Netanyahu said on Twitter that the Israeli military "will not be lectured by those who have indiscriminately bombed civilian populations for years." “Apparently, this is how they mark April 1 in Ankara,” Netanyahu added, in reference to April’s Fool Day. The Israeli official’s remarks were a reference to Turkey’s operation against the Kurdish groups in Syria’s Afrin.

The war of words between the two came after Israeli forces opened fire on some non-violent demonstrations on the Gaza border on March 30, killing 15 people. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that the Israeli forces had opened fire at protesters in different Gaza cities, among them Jabalia, Rafah, Khan Yunis and Beit Hanoun.

The Palestinian protesters were marking the "Land Day,” an event commemorating six Palestinian citizens of Israel who were shot dead by Israeli forces after protesting the government's confiscation of large swaths of Palestinian land on March 30, 1976.

Friday's rallies were also the start of a six-week protest that culminates on May 15, the day the Palestinians call "Nakba," or the Catastrophe, when Israel was officially declared a state 70 years ago and more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes.

Meanwhile, after the escalation of the war of words between Erdogan and Netanyahu, a top Israeli minister said a 2016 reconciliation agreement with Turkey was a mistake. Israel’s public security minister Gilad Erdan on Monday also called Erdogan “an anti-Semite who continues to support Hamas.”

“Looking back, maybe the accord should not have been approved,” Erdan told Army Radio, referring to the 2016 deal with Ankara that ended years of diplomatic crisis, following an Israeli naval raid on a Turkish aid ship trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Erdan’s comments echoed those of Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who in December called the accord a “diplomatic mistake” that had “failed”.