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Israel hits back at Turkish president over Paris rally statement

Xinhua, January 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israel on Wednesday hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for daring to show up at a Paris rally following France's recent violence.

On Tuesday, Erdogan denounced Netanyahu's attendance at the rally, saying that the Israeli leader killed 2,500 people during a 50-day air and ground military operation against the Gaza Strip last year.

"How can a man who has killed 2,500 people in Gaza with

tate terrorism wave his hand in Paris, like people are waiting

in excitement for him to do so? How dare he go there?" He said.

Erdogan also accused other western countries of "obvious hypocrisy" and "racism and Islamophobia."

"I think these actions, these statements of the Turkish President should be refuted by all those who want to carry on to fight against terrorism," Netanyahu said during his meeting with visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.

"He (Erdogan) said that Israel should not have been represented in the march in Paris, and the reasons he gave were the actions we took to defend ourselves against the thousands of rockets launched at our cities by Hamas terrorists," Netanyahu was quoted in a statement issued by his office Wednesday.

In a speech he gave to Israeli ambassadors in Europe and Asia, Israel's outspoken Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called Erdogan an "anti-Semitic bully," according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

Turkey and Israel used to have close diplomatic ties, which suffered a serious blow in 2010 when Israeli commandos raided a ship trying to breach the maritime blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish nationals were killed in the raid.

Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and recalled its envoy to Israel over the incident, while the two sides still maintain low-level diplomatic links. Endit