Addressing the Conference on the Future of Palestine in the capital, Ankara, on Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hit out at Israeli aggression targeting Palestinians and the inaction of the international community, seeking to rally support for the victims of Israeli attacks.
“Victory belongs to those who have faith in Lebanon and Palestine,” Erdoğan said as he expressed hope that the cruelty people are exposed will end soon.
“Türkiye stands with its Palestinian and Lebanese brothers and sisters. Though great suffering took place, by Allah’s will, this will end with the establishment of a free State of Palestine based on the 1967 borders,” he said to thundering applause at the event organized by his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
“One day, tears and suffering will end. Mothers in Gaza will ready the bridal veil for their children instead of the shroud. Children will run and walk freely. When they look up at the sky, they will see the sun and stars, now it’s warplanes,” Erdoğan stressed.
Erdoğan has been a vocal critic of the Netanyahu administration in the wake of a barrage of Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip and beyond since Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinians have been suffering from Israeli oppression for decades, but the international community only “opened its eyes” to it after Oct. 7, Erdoğan said at the event.
Reiterating his harsh criticism of Israel as he recalled the “foundation” of the country, Erdoğan said: “It is wrong to call it a state; its foundation has been a catastrophe for Palestinians.”
As he fondly remembered Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and other “martyrs killed by the Zionist government,” Erdoğan said the Palestine issue dominated the agenda after Israel’s attacks that began last year. “Israel’s genocide policy, which extended to Lebanon after Gaza, revealed the true face of Zionism to humanity. We witnessed how the Zionist lobby controlled global powers and systems in this process. We saw how it put pressure on the economies, commerce, media, cinema, arts, academia and even bureaucracy in some countries (to push its own agenda),” he said.
“We felt embarrassed how international organizations, including the U.N. Security Council, succumbed to weakness in the face of Israel’s arrogance. We witnessed how human rights organizations and famous news outlets succumbed to a deep silence when it comes to Palestine, the rights of savagely killed children in Gaza and the oppressed in Palestine and Lebanon, and in the face of infants slaughtered by sniper fire,” Erdoğan said.
The president also lamented the fact that the U.N. took no concrete action amid Israel’s attacks on its peacekeepers in Lebanon. “How will the U.N. defend the rights of others if it fails to protect its own staff in Lebanon?” he said.
Staff of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have repeatedly come under fire as Israel expanded its war to Lebanon in recent weeks. Türkiye itself contributes to the peacekeeping force. Erdoğan, who champions a change in the structure of the U.N. where Israel’s supporters veto efforts to resolve the conflict, reiterated his criticism of the international body and a call to reform the body.
“Lack of a definitive reaction to attacks on the UNIFIL by permanent members of the U.N. Security Council in the face of Israel’s arrogance toward the mission is as dire as attacks on peacekeepers. I wonder who will save the U.N. from the spiral of shame it is in while its reputation erodes daily,” he said.
Erdoğan also called upon the Islamic world to take action.
He said they still were not pessimistic in the face of recent developments. “We have never lost hope,” Erdoğan said.
