{"id":13994,"date":"2009-07-28T23:32:33","date_gmt":"2009-07-28T20:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=13994"},"modified":"2017-11-28T17:26:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T14:26:03","slug":"why-don%e2%80%99t-jews-condemn-anti-semitism-in-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2009\/07\/28\/why-don%e2%80%99t-jews-condemn-anti-semitism-in-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Don\u2019t Jews Condemn Anti-Semitism in Turkey?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rifat Bali, a Jewish scholar and a native of Istanbul, has been investigating anti-Semitism in Turkey for many years. He has authored several books and articles on the history of Turkish Jews. His most recent book, \u201cThe Jews of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide,\u201d is a monumental work that documents how the Turkish government pressured not only Turkish Jews, but also the Israeli government and American-Jewish organizations, to lobby against congressional resolutions on the Armenian Genocide.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Turkey\u2019s blackmail of Jews in and out of Turkey is not news to our readers. Neither is the fact that there has been widespread anti-Semitism in Turkey for decades, if not centuries. In a lengthy article published in July by the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs in Jerusalem, Mr. Bali meticulously documents the fact that such racist attitudes are held by practically the entire spectrum of Turkish society.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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In his article, \u201cPresent-day Anti-Semitism in Turkey,\u201d Mr. Bali summarizes his analysis in four key points:<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\u00b7 <\/span>\u201cTurkish intellectuals have always taken a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli stance. Islamists associate the \u2018Palestine question\u2019 with alleged Jewish involvement in the rise of Turkish secularism. Leftists see Israel as an imperialist state and an extension of American hegemony in the Middle East. Comparable themes are found among nationalist intellectuals.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span>\u201cTurkish reactions to Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon and 2009 war in Gaza often spilled over into anti-Semitism. Newspaper columnists, some of them academics, belonging to the various ideological streams helped fan popular sentiment against Israel and Jews. Israel was said to be exploiting Holocaust guilt and the services of the \u2018American Jewish lobby\u2019 to further its own nefarious aims.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span>\u201cTurkish approaches to the \u2018Palestine question\u2019 rarely venture outside the clich\u00e9s of Turkish popular culture. Turkish publishing houses providing translated works on the issue are careful not to run afoul of popular sentiment. The net result is that both Turkish columnists and their readers utilize only limited sources on the conflict that are preponderantly anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span>\u201cAny attempt by the Turkish Jewish leadership to confront Turkish society on combating anti-Semitism is likely to backfire and even further exacerbate the problem. Given this reality, the only options left for Turkey’s Jewish community are to either continue living in Turkey amid widespread anti-Semitism or to emigrate.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Mr. Bali documents his assertions by quoting from dozens of anti-Semitic statements published in various Turkish newspapers in recent years. Here are some examples:<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
— Toktam\u0131\u015f Ate\u015f, professor of political science at Istanbul and Istanbul Bilgi universities, newspaper columnist, and a prominent intellectual who frequently appears on TV, described Jews as \u201cthe first and most racist people in history.\u201d (Bug\u00fcn<\/em>, July 20, 2006).<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
— Ayhan Demir, a commentator for the Islamist Mill\u00ee Gazete<\/em>, wrote: \u201cThe first thing to be done to achieve the security of Istanbul and Jerusalem is to get rid of, in as short a time as possible, this \u2018shanty town\u2019 that has begun to harm humanity on the entire face of the earth, and which is as offensive to the heart as to the eye. To send the occupiers to the garbage heap of history, together with their bloody charlatanism would be one of the most noble acts that could be realized in the name of humanity. A world without Israel would be, without a doubt, a much more peaceful and secure world.\u201d (Mill\u00ee Gazete<\/em>, December 30, 2008).<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
— Nuh G\u00f6n\u00fclta\u015f, a well-known columnist, said Hitler was justified in his treatment of the Jews, since \u201cthe state of Israel is an even greater tyrant than Hitler.\u201d (Bug\u00fcn<\/em>, August 1, 2006).<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
— The Islamist sociologist Ali Bula\u00e7, a well-known columnist for Zaman<\/em>, described Gaza as \u201ca concentration camp that in reality surpasses the Nazi camps.\u201d (Zaman<\/em>, December 29, 2008).<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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It is simply astonishing that Israeli officials and Jewish leaders worldwide hardly ever react, at least not publicly, to such widespread and vicious anti-Semitic outbursts in Turkey. Why is Rifat Bali resigned to the fact that \u201cthe only options left for Turkey’s Jewish community are to either continue living in Turkey amid widespread anti-Semitism or to emigrate?\u201d This is a fundamental question that Jews themselves should answer!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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By keeping quiet, Jewish leaders are simply encouraging Turkish commentators to continue making racist and insulting remarks. If Israel\u2019s President Shimon Peres and ADL\u2019s National Director Abraham Foxman were not so busy denying the Armenian Genocide, they would perhaps spend more of their time fighting anti-Semitism!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rifat Bali, a Jewish scholar and a native of Istanbul, has been investigating anti-Semitism in Turkey for many years. He has authored several books and articles on the history of Turkish Jews. His most recent book, \u201cThe Jews of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide,\u201d is a monumental work that documents how the Turkish government pressured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":26515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[804],"class_list":["post-13994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","tag-anti-semitism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}