Israel Matzav

Blood libel: The final nail in the coffin of Israel's relations with Turkey?

Turkey's TRT-1 network, a 'family channel,' broadcast a show this week that is loosely based on Operation Cast Lead. It shows IDF soldiers as bloodthirsty men who aim to kill civilians. There is a scene, which you will see in the video below, that shows an IDF soldier pushing a child against a wall and shooting her at point blank range (Hat Tip: Benny).

The series is called Ayrilik (Frieda) and it is a love story that takes place against the background of Operation Cast Lead. For those who read Hebrew, there's an article about it here. For those who can't, I'll summarize the article.

But first, let's go to the videotape, which is in Turkish with no translation, but you'll get the idea....



TRT-1 shows this series at 7:50 pm, during Prime Time, on Tuesday nights. TRT-1 is considered a 'family' channel. It is one of the most popular stations in Turkey and home to many leading television series.

In the video, you see 'Palestinians' - some armed and some using only rocks and the like - fighting with IDF troops. At the end of the battle, an IDF soldier picks up the leg of a dead 'Palestinian' and then you see the mother come out in tears and remove her son's body.

Then you see an IDF soldier push a little girl against the wall. She stares into his eyes pleadingly, but he shoots her in the chest at point blank range and kills her.

The opening preview also shows soldiers acting brutally to 'Palestinians' - kicking and hitting them at random and sowing destruction everywhere. For a moment, you see a row of 'Palestinians' standing in front of a firing squad.

This is the series' description from the station's web site:

It brings to the screen the world's open wound that is happening in Palestine. The series shows all dimensions of the tragedy. A tragedy that is taking place in the place that hurts the eyes most over generations. The series brings to the screen the people who are living on the land that was conquered from the Palestinians in 1948.

The site goes on to say that the new season focuses on the stories of the women and children "and places at its center the Palestinian question, which can only be resolved through love, mercy and peace in the world."

Anyone wonder any more whether the Turks hate us and why? Can this relationship be saved? I doubt it.

This is a blood libel that's worthy of Syria or Iran (or Egypt for that matter), but it's on television in supposedly 'moderate' Turkey.

So much for the 'secular Muslim country.'

UPDATE THURSDAY 12:41 AM

JPost reports that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has summoned Turkey's ambassador to Israel to deliver a protest.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a statement Wednesday night announcing that the Turkish envoy would be summonsed to protest the "inciting" television program that appeared Tuesday evening on prime time on the popular state-run station TRT1.

In the first episode of a series on a Palestinian family living in the West Bank, IDF soldiers are variously seen killing a baby, a young girl, and lining up Palestinians to be shot before a firing squad.

Lieberman, currently holding meetings in Austria, issued a statement saying the airing of this show, on a government controlled station, represented the "gravest form of incitement."

"This series, which has absolutely no connection to reality, and which presents IDF soldiers as murderers of innocent children, is not fit to be broadcast even in the most hostile countries, and certainly not in a country that has full diplomatic relations with Israel," he said.

That's a slightly different plot from the one claimed by the Hebrew version of YNet, but equally reprehensible.

By the way, Turkey doesn't have an ambassador in Israel right now. They're in the process of replacing him. Why don't we just bring our ambassador home?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:06 PM