Turkey's Erdogan: Israel Should Be Barred From UN

ANKARA, Turkey — Israel should be barred from the United Nations while it ignores the organization's calls to stop fighting in Gaza, Turkey's prime minister said Friday, urging the world not to turn a blind eye to Israel's "savagery."

"How is such a country, which totally ignores and does not implement resolutions of the U.N. Security Council, allowed to enter through the gates of the U.N.?" Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Erdogan spoke before U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Ankara. Erdogan's comments reflected growing anger in Turkey, Israel's best friend in the Muslim world, over Israel's Gaza operation.

Ban is on a weeklong trip to the region to promote a truce after both Israel and Hamas leaders in Gaza ignored a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

"The U.N. building in Gaza was hit while the U.N. secretary-general was in Israel," Erdogan said. "This is an open challenge to the world."

Erdogan told Ban at a banquet that Turkey was disappointed the United Nations did not assume a more active role in Gaza, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported on Friday.

"All border crossings with Gaza must be opened to alleviate the suffering of civilians and Israeli soldiers must simultaneously and urgently leave Gaza," Anatolia quoted Erdogan as saying. "Turkey is ready for any mission in each and every step the U.N. will take."

Ban said Turkey's proposals were important, Anatolia said.

Israel infuriated the U.N. when it shelled the world body's headquarters Thursday in Gaza City, where hundreds of Gazans were seeking shelter. The destruction added to what aid groups say is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

In an anti-Israel demonstration in Istanbul after Friday prayers, about 1,500 pro-Islamic protesters chanted "We're all soldiers of Hamas!" And police in Ankara used pepper spray to disperse hundreds of protesters. Several shops were damaged during the clashes in downtown Kizilay district.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor rebuffed Erdogan's criticism.

"Maybe if Turkey had voted more with Israel at the U.N. and expressed its anger when Hamas was firing rockets indiscriminately on Israeli civilians, it could have contributed more to bringing peace to southern Israel and Gaza" than by making such statements, Palmor said.

Comments

[VictorLudorum]

11:44 AM on 01/19/2009

Turkey has a insane zionist policy itself!
Since the ww2 they cannot decide on a status for Kurds and even start bombing them from air..

[gageeandbaba]

04:25 PM on 01/17/2009

Racist Israeli policies prevent Arab Israeli Citizens from running for government.

[Thabit]

02:47 PM on 01/17/2009

A total blockade of all goods entering or leaving Israel would have them opening the blockade around Gaza and the west bank pretty quick, if it was also tied to them leaving all settlements in the westbank and destruction of the so called security wall there would be a chance of a 2 state solution

[LazyLearner]

12:34 PM on 01/17/2009

Bad idea... UN was created in order to let enemies talk, especially on territorial disputes, a topic that Israel is trying to avoid at all costs

[Balam]

12:04 PM on 01/17/2009

This type of butchery committed by Israel must be addressed by the UN and the incoming Obama administration. Israel cannot be allowed to act with such impunity in the future. Sooner or later it's neighbors are going to retaliate in a big way, then all bets are off. Can you say "Armagedon" or "WWIII".

[Rubyfoo]

02:35 PM on 01/17/2009

Can you say, stop firing rockets at Israeli civilians. That's all it would have taken to avoid this mess.

[betz55]

09:57 AM on 01/18/2009

Can you say stop the illegal occupation of Palestine, the illegal settlements, the wall, and the oppressive apartheid treatment of the Palestinians. It begins and ends with the occupation. Hamas is not occupying anyones land, Israel is.

It is exceedingly hypocritical and laughable for Israel as they try to lay claim to the history of Jewish ghetto suffering, all the while cheering for the open-air imprisonment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

What is today Sedrot was a Palestinian town ethnically cleansed by Israli terrorists in 1948. All Palestinians were killed or forced out of their lands and homes by the Zionistas. No wonder it's a target. Palestinian people used to live and thrive in Sedrot.

Primitive rockets from Gaza,have taken thirteen Israeli lives in the past four years,while Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied territories in the past two years alone, not even counting Gaza. .Almost half of them were civilians, including some 200 children.

What if this was happening to the jews? The reaction would be spectacular and filled with claims of persecution and victim rhetoric. This is why Israel is hated. Hamas is not destroying Israel. Israel is destroying Israel.

[riverhouse]

08:34 PM on 01/16/2009

It would be a start to recognizing the horror going on at the hands of madmen.

[InjunTrouble]

08:32 PM on 01/16/2009

Israel should be boycotted and isolated just like South Africa used to be.

Otherwise it will never learn to behave like a civilized country.

[Rubyfoo]

02:38 PM on 01/17/2009

Who actually are the indigenous people? Israeli's settled Israel in biblical times, and were thrown off by everybody except the Buddhists (maybe). Where do you want them to go, into the Mediterranean? You probably do.

[MaryinMontcoPA]

10:43 AM on 01/18/2009

It doesn't matter who is "indigenous." A wise native American (whose name I can't call up right now) pointed out that we don't "own" the land; we borrow it from our children.

Just because Jews lived in Israel a long time ago didn't give them the right to take it by force from the people who lived there in 1948. That was a travesty, and the Israeli government is reaping what it sowed... and feeding anti-semitism around the world at the same time.

If hostile forces around Israel shut down their ports, destroyed their airports, stopped all commerce into and out of Israel, cut off their supply of electricity, food and water to their civilians, while enduring sarcastic remarks by their enemies leaders that they were putting Israelis "on a diet"... would Israel choose to surrender and welcome their enemies' dictates on who should run their government, ignoring their duly elected officials? Or would they resist and fight back in whatever ways they could?

Yep. Just like the Palestinians.

Israel doesn't have a problem that can be solved by brutality.

[exotic]

02:54 PM on 01/16/2009

I AM NOT REPORTING ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

[exotic]

02:53 PM on 01/16/2009

YES!!!

[thepoliticalcat]

02:51 PM on 01/16/2009

Boycott, Divest, Sanction. Israel has bombed U.S. military, U.S. and international civilians on mercy missions, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, the UN stockpiles, headquarters, and personnel, and unarmed women and children, in defiance of every precept of international law. Kicking them out of the UN is a mere fleabite. Cut off all trade, investment, and impose sanctions, and then they'll start listening.

[riverhouse]

08:33 PM on 01/16/2009

I agree with you 100%. It's time for the world to stand up against this out of control madness. No fit human being could support such behavior.

[majormoderate]

01:17 PM on 01/16/2009

"How is such a country, which totally ignores and does not implement resolutions of the U.N. Security Council, allowed to enter through the gates of the U.N.?"

Then by his same reasons for kicking Israel out, wouldn't the US be booted too? And, what is the UN without the US?

[discourse jockey]

04:17 PM on 01/16/2009

What is the UN *with* the US? The US irrevocably denounced the UN when they unilaterally "pre-emptively" invaded Iraq when a UN resolution wasn't passed. With friends like the US, who needs terrorists?

[baffy]

04:46 PM on 01/16/2009

There is no question that, based on the Bush agenda, the UN would have been far better off without either the US or Israel.

[Mollabaji]

12:37 PM on 01/16/2009

It is great that Turkish leaders are stating the facts of the situation but......here is the first step they can take to give credibility to what they are saying but cutting off the diplomatic relation Turkey has with Israel. Turkey also has a trade relation with Israel of over $2 billion a year. They should order the boycot of all Israeli goods and cut trade relation off also.
I think they are only paying lip service to the anger of the population in Turkey.
SHOW ME if you mean what you say.

[sonoffestus]

08:57 PM on 01/16/2009

Good point.

[nogimmicks]

01:39 AM on 01/17/2009

You are absolutely right. Turkey remains the main supporter politically, economically and militarily. So far, just empty words to please the voters (same with the UN, the US Senators).