Addressing an economic event of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul on Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that the Israeli administration was a "murderer" and "thief" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would eventually be tried as a war criminal.
Erdoğan also urged the Muslim world to unite against Israel's expansionist ideals and warned it may have plans to invade other places in the region.
"The OIC, whose founding purpose is to defend the Palestinian cause, offers us an important ground for us to carry out the struggle with one voice and one body," Erdoğan said. The president was also critical of the issue of Israel "having nuclear weapons" and said they would not allow it "to be forgotten."
Erdoğan's remarks did not differ much from Türkiye's rhetoric, which emphasizes full support for the Palestinian cause or the establishment of a fully independent, sovereign Palestinian state in lands "stolen" by Israel. Since the new round of the conflict broke out between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7, Türkiye advocated for a lasting, two-state solution to the issue. Erdoğan was one of the first leaders to denounce what he called Israel's atrocities amounting to genocide toward innocent civilians in Gaza and other Palestinian cities. Under the leadership of Erdoğan, Türkiye is also engaged in a diplomatic blitz to rally other countries to find a solution to the issue and ensure the safety of millions of civilians confined to Gaza under heavy bombardment by Israel, which only decreased thanks to a humanitarian pause. The Israeli attacks, however, resumed after the pause ended following a brief exchange of hostages between the two sides.
In his speech, Erdoğan noted that children, babies and women made up every two out of three persons "martyred" in Gaza and more than 6,500 Gazans were missing. "Israeli cruelty claimed the lives of 73 journalists and more than 100 United Nations employees. The U.N., founded to maintain global security and peace, cannot protect its own employees from Israel's barbaric acts. From Europe to the United States, powers claiming to defend rights and freedoms are too weak. These countries unconditionally support Israel to kill more children, strike more hospitals and houses," he said. "They supposedly taught us democracy and law, freedom of the press. But they are blind and mute to Israel's massacres," he said.
Erdoğan said Gaza was a Palestinian land and would remain so forever. "Defending Gaza and Palestine today means defending Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina, Istanbul, Damascus, Beirut, Baghdad and other Muslim territories. As the Muslim world, it is our duty not to leave even an inch of land in Gaza to invader Israel. This is not only for our Gazan, Palestinian brothers and sisters but for our own security and territorial integrity. We know very well that those invading Gaza today would set their sights elsewhere with their warped dream of the Promised Land. They don't hide this intention. Netanyahu, the Gaza butcher, openly declared his expansionist goals. We should not wait for this fire, this suffering, to reach our homelands," he said.
The president highlighted the decisions made at a recent emergency summit of OIC and the Arab League in Riyadh and said it was a milestone event to exhibit the Islamic world's stance on the Palestinian issue and recognize Israel's illegal settlers as terrorists for the first time.
The president also called the Muslim world to take up the work of rebuilding Gaza, which was demolished by Israel, and show a clear stance against Israel's policy of depopulation in Gaza. "If we act as a big family with 2 billion members from Asia to Africa, from Americas to Europe, nobody can threaten us, nobody can wag fingers at us," he said.
"The path to peace in our region is through establishing the Palestinian state. We are ready to take any responsibility to that extent, for establishing peace, including a guarantorship along with other countries," Erdoğan said, referring to Türkiye's early proposal to act as a guarantor state for Palestine to end the conflict.
Further on Netanyahu, Erdoğan said, "Beyond being a war criminal, Netanyahu, who is the butcher of Gaza right now, will be tried as the butcher of Gaza, just as Milosevic was tried," in reference to Yugoslav ex-President Slobodan Milosevic, who was tried for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes at a tribunal in The Hague.
"Those who try to skip over the deaths of all those innocent people by using the excuse of Hamas have nothing left to say to humanity," he added.
The president praised U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's sincere efforts for peace but lamented the fact that members of U.N. Security Council members undermined the efforts. He lauded a resolution adopted by votes of 121 countries for a humanitarian cease-fire, but the current U.N. structure failed to stop the bloodshed.
"Forty abstaining votes at the U.N. is unfortunately enough to annul the will of 161 countries. This system is obvious enough to show how 2 billion Muslims in the world are cornered (in the global system). We have 121 countries opposing the war, but only a few countries were entitled to start the mechanism to stop the bloodshed. It was impossible to bring about the peace under this system," he said.
A beloved figure in countries ignored or exploited by superpowers, in the Islamic world, Asia, Africa and elsewhere, Erdoğan repeatedly calls for those countries to have their say in international affairs as well. At every international event about the U.N., Erdoğan repeats his call for a change to the international body's inner workings, particularly the composition of five members of the Security Council, under his oft-repeated motto "the world is bigger than five" or "a fairer world is possible."
Erdoğan also highlighted rising hostility toward Islam, a growing threat in the world. "In most European countries where Muslims make up the majority of the migrant population, we see xenophobic, anti-Muslim, racist, discriminating acts every day. Our citizens, particularly those living in Western European countries, face attacks on their properties and their mosques. Since January 2023, we have seen about 500 anti-Muslim attacks, especially in the form of the burning of the Quran, including outside the embassies of OIC member states. We saw three young men wearing Palestinian keffiyeh shot on the street in the U.S. last week," he said.
Erdoğan added that governments did not take any measures while anti-Muslim sentiment "spread like plague" in Western societies. They even excused heinous attacks towards the Quran under the pretext of freedom of expression. "Those turning a blind eye to those attacks suddenly adopt a prohibiting mindset when the issue at hand is defending the rights of the innocent in Palestine, in Gaza. We see they have no such tolerance and no freedom of expression (when it comes to pro-Palestinian protests in the West). Their real purpose is to provoke Muslims and create a 'Muslim problem.' We will not allow this and we will not fall into this trap," he said.
The president underlined that OIC countries should act together against those hate crimes and should use bilateral, international platforms to fight against hate crimes.
