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Israel and Turkey have agreed to restore full diplomatic relations, Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced. “The resumption of relations with [Turkey] is an important asset for regional stability and very important economic news for the citizens of Israel,” a statement from Lapid’s office said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed the decision to reappoint ambassadors and said Ankara would be sending its envoy to Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-largest city.
The two countries recalled their respective ambassadors in 2010 after the Israeli Navy intercepted a flotilla transporting weapons to the Gaza Strip, an incident that resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish nationals. Following an attempt at mending ties, Turkey withdrew its ambassador in 2018 when the United States announced that it would be moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
I welcome today’s announcement that Israel and Turkey are fully restoring their diplomatic relations. This move will bring increased security, stability, and prosperity to their peoples as well as the region.
— Jake Sullivan (@JakeSullivan46) August 17, 2022
Çavuşoğlu noted that, despite the normalization process with the Jewish state, Turkey would continue to “defend the rights of Palestine, Jerusalem and Gaza.” A recent report revealed that Hamas’ headquarters in Istanbul directed hundreds of terrorist attacks against Israelis. The report claimed that President Erdoğan’s government “collaborates with terror organizations on both the ideological and operational levels.”
The process of rapprochement with Israel started earlier this year. In March, President Isaac Herzog met with Erdoğan in the Turkish capital. Two months ago, Lapid visited Ankara, after his Turkish counterpart traveled to Jerusalem, the first high-level visit by a Turkish official in 15 years.
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During a coordinated visit to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus on Wednesday night, Palestinians opened fire on Israeli security forces and violent clashes broke out, during which an 18-year-old Palestinian from the Balata refugee camp named Wasim Khalifa was killed and at least 30 others were injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Some 600 worshipers were brought to the tomb complex in the northern West Bank city as part of a planned visit in coordination with the Israel Defense Forces.
During the clashes, an Israeli bus was hit near the tomb. It remains unclear whether the damage was from stone-throwing or shooting. No Israeli civilians were injured.
Jewish worshipers entered the tomb accompanied by security forces, part of the revised security arrangements in light of recent incidents at the site. IDF snipers and soldiers were deployed along the route to the tomb and security routes were altered to better secure the complex, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
Back in June, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on worshippers, leaving several people injured, including IDF Samaria Regional Brigade commander Col. Roi Zweig.
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The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) is again seeking full membership in the United Nations, the PA’s envoy to the UN confirmed. Riyad Mansour argued that the initiative would “save the two-state solution” and even perhaps “help Israel by waking up its leaders to hold negotiations.”
Notably, Jerusalem in early 2020 accepted as a basis for talks a peace roadmap presented by the United States under then-president Donald Trump. The PA rejected the proposal.
Mansour acknowledged in the interview that the PA’s move would almost certainly be unsuccessful without support from Washington. Yet the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1990 bars American funding for “the United Nations or any specialized agencies thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states.”
In 2012, PA President Mahmoud Abbas submitted a resolution to obtain non-member observer status at the United Nations. The resolution was overwhelmingly passed by the General Assembly and granted Ramallah similar privileges as the Holy See.
The Palestinian Authority has since become a party to several international treaties and conventions, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
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Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Schulz on Thursday, who emphasized that he rejects and condemns the Holocaust comment of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He added that it was important for him to clarify this publicly, as well as personally to the Israeli PM.
“His gaffe yesterday casts a dark shadow over Germany’s relations with the Palestinian Authority,” Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said of Abbas’ remarks.
Scholz also expects the Palestinian Authority president “to acknowledge the singularity of the Holocaust without any qualification,” according to Hebestreit. In his statement posted on Twitter, the chancellor, who was criticized for not immediately responding to Abbas, referred to his remarks as “outrageous.”
The German Chancellery also summoned the Palestinian representative to Berlin over Abbas’ remarks.
When a reporter asked Abbas to apologize for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics, Abbas responded, “If you want to go over the past, go ahead. I have 50 slaughters that Israel committed… 50 massacres, 50 slaughters… 50 holocausts.”
Recommended Reading
- Why the World Won’t Care About Abbas’s ‘Holocaust’ Lie (Jonathan S. Tobin, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Beat the Press: Reporters in Gaza Have Never Been Free and Aren’t Now (Clifford D. May, Foundation for Defense of Democracies)
- Texas School District Orders Librarians to Remove a Version of Anne Frank’s Diary From Shelves (Andrew Lapin, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
- Israeli Space Tech Startup Helios Partners With ETA Space to Make Oxygen on Moon (Ricky Ben-David, Times of Israel)
- 18 Images of Israeli Humanitarian Aid Workers in Action (Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21C)
Featured Image: Photo by OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images
