Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday sharply condemned Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, accusing him of using rhetoric that amounts to incitement to genocide against the Jewish state.
Sa’ar made the remarks during a joint appearance in Jerusalem with Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe, who was visiting Israel for a series of diplomatic meetings.
The two ministers held private and expanded discussions before signing an agreement to strengthen cooperation in education, including vocational training and professional development, as well as a memorandum of understanding expanding cooperation through Israel’s international development agency, MASHAV.
Turning to Turkey, Sa’ar denounced comments Fidan made ahead of the NATO summit, where Turkey is serving as host.
“I must address the appalling remarks made a few days ago by Turkey’s foreign minister,” Sa’ar said. Quoting Fidan’s statement that Israel had become “a burden that humanity can no longer bear,” Sa’ar said the language echoed rhetoric used against Jews in the years leading up to the Holocaust.
“To speak about a people as a ‘problem for humanity’—what do you do with a burden that you can no longer bear?” Sa’ar asked.
“These words are a clear call for genocide,” he declared.
Sa’ar warned that history has shown the dangers of allowing such rhetoric to go unanswered.
“The Jewish people know very well what happens when such words are allowed to go unchallenged. The first step on the road to genocide is dehumanization,” he said.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)