The United States, instead of telling Israel to stop committing war crimes and human rights violations, is busy making unfair accusations about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who defends the oppressed, Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın stated on Wednesday.
"It is a tragicomic approach by the U.S. to associate our president’s support to the oppressed Palestinian people and his reflecting of Israel’s illegal and inhumane acts with anti-semitism," Kalın said in a written statement.
"Even though the U.S. does not see it, everyone with a conscience is aware of the atrocity in Palestine. Israel’s massacres cannot be covered up with the label of anti-Semitism," he stated, highlighting that Turkey rejects and condemns the U.S.’ statement.
He explained that the Turkish people throughout history have viewed standing with the oppressed as a moral responsibility. "It could not be imagined that our president be silent toward this atrocity while Israel forces the Palestinian people out of their homes and kills civilians including babies."
Kalın emphasized that Erdoğan's sensitivity about the Holocaust is clear, pointing to the fact that the Jewish community in Turkey's rights are protected.
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday criticized Erdoğan for what it called "anti-Semitic" remarks.
"The United States strongly condemns President Erdoğan's recent anti-Semitic comments regarding the Jewish people and finds them reprehensible," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Erdoğan, a vocal champion of the Palestinian cause during his 18-year rule, has fired salvos at Israel since the start of the violence in Gaza.
"They are murderers, to the point that they kill children who are five or six years old. They are murderers, to the point they drag women on the ground to their death and they are murderers, to the point they kill old people... They only are satisfied by sucking their blood," he said.
Erdoğan also lashed out at U.S. President Joe Biden for his diplomatic support for Israel, saying the leader has "bloody hands."
The Israeli army has launched incessant attacks on Gaza since May 10, killing at least 212 Palestinians, including 61 children and 35 women, and injuring 1,400 others, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In its recent indiscriminate attacks, Israel has also targeted the press and Turkish journalists, drawing condemnation from press institutions around the world.
The airstrikes on Gaza were preceded by days of tension and Israeli aggression in occupied East Jerusalem, where hundreds of Palestinians were assaulted by Israeli forces at Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.