After slamming Israel and calling on Muslims to flood the Al-Aqsa Mosque to show solidarity with the Palestinians and protect the site's Muslim character, Turkish President Erdoğan meets with Palestinian PM Rami Hamdallah in Istanbul to reaffirm his commitment to ‘protecting’ Jerusalem

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met on Monday night with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Istanbul, where the two reportedly discussed ways to “protect” Jerusalem, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.

The meeting came shortly after Erdoğan admonished Israel for the Muezzin Bill and called on Muslims to go to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the hundreds of thousands to show solidarity with the Palestinians and protect the site's Muslim character.

According to the report, the Palestinian prime minister updated Erdoğan on the Palestinian political situation with Israel and about “Israeli violations.” Hamdallah also provided details on the ongoing hunger strike of Palestinian security prisoners.

The Ma’an report added that a statement from Hamdallah said that Erdoğan “confirmed the necessity of unifying efforts to protect Jerusalem against attempts of judaization.”

The statement also stressed that Erdoğan called on Muslims to increase their visitation to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in eastern Jerusalem.

Due to the beliefs and “historical responsibilities” of Muslims, Erdoğan reportedly said, Turkey has given “huge attention to Jerusalem and to the struggle of Palestinians for justice,” and that the country is doubling its efforts “to make Jerusalem the city of security, independence and peace again.”

Erdoğan insisted that “it is impossible to find a solution and peace in the region without finding a fair solution for the Palestinian cause first,” according to the statement.

“The only solution” he said, was to establish Palestinian state on the 1967 borders and “exert pressure on Israel.”

Despite the reconciliation deal between Israel and Turkey that was signed last year, Erdoğan didn’t hold back in slamming Israel.

“Israel keeps getting away from punishment which leads it to escalated aggression against Palestinians,” he insisted, before adding that all peace-making attempts will fail “unless Israel is held accountable for its crimes.”

For his part, Hamdallah delivered a speech in which he accused Israel of “stealing land that belongs to legal owners,” adding that “Israel is trying to distort history and control the holy sites for Christians and Muslims.

“If the international community continues to remain silent about what is happening in Palestine, and especially in Jerusalem, Israel will widen its actions and the conflict will become a religious one.”

Israel issued a responded on Monday evening to the Turkish president, saying it is "worried" about his anti-Israel statement, adding that "we do not wish for escalation, we can end this crisis."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4959442,00.html

President Erdoğan and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah

Too many hypocrites in the arab world..we all know turkey was a christian country and the ottoman muslims murdered armenians and took their land..took istanbul from the chrisitians..stole the Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica HAGIA SOPHIA..turned it into a mosque..i can go on and on.do u hear christians crying about it today?why must it be the muslims that always complain...why cant they just let the world rest..u have over 20 arab/muslims countries and why cant you leave the only jewish country in the world alone..jerusalem will never be divided and palestine is jordan and jordan is palestine

cristianisraeli:
Too many hypocrites in the arab world..we all know turkey was a christian country and the ottoman muslims murdered armenians and took their land..took istanbul from the chrisitians..stole the Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica HAGIA SOPHIA..turned it into a mosque..i can go on and on.do u hear christians crying about it today?why must it be the muslims that always complain...why cant they just let the world rest..u have over 20 arab/muslims countries and why cant you leave the only jewish country in the world alone..jerusalem will never be divided and palestine is jordan and jordan is palestine

Seriously, a once and for all solution must be applied to this Palestine/Israel debacle, before it snowballs into another international war that humanity may not be able to withstand. A common sense solution. What's so special about dis Jerusalem sef?

jchioma:


Seriously, a once and for all solution must be applied to this Palestine/Israel debacle, before it snowballs into another international war that humanity may not be able to withstand. A common sense solution. What's so special about dis Jerusalem sef?

theres no once and for all solution...jerusalem was never even mentioned in the koran but it was mentioned in the bible and when the muslims pray in jerusalem they pray facing mecca and its not going to snow ball into another war..jerusalem will remain the undivided capital of israel..jerusalem is holy to the jews and christians and i cant say the same for the muslims..if its so holy to them why do they pray giving their ass to the holy mosque in the picture below..palestine is a political movement and all arabs leaders use it to gain followers in the muslim world..again jordan is palestine and palestine is jordan..israel withdrew from GAZA and what happened..thousands of rockets fired from the strip..DO U KNOW WHEN THE BRITISH DIVIDED PALESTINE THEY GAVE THE PALESTINES 70% OF THE LAND AND GAVE THE JEWISH PEOPLE 30%...THE JEWS ACCEPTED AND THE MUSLIMS REFUSED AND ATTACKED ISRAEL AND THEY WERE ALL DEFEATED AND NOW THEY WANT WHAT....THE PROBLEM IS THE MUSLIMS NOT WANTING THE ONLY JEWISH STATE INT HE WORLD TO EXIST..THATS ALL

Before WW1 there were no nations in the Middle East, and definitely no "Palestine".

For 400 years it was simply part of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire.
When the allies won WW1 the Turks signed all their lands over in the Treaty of Sevres. That made the Allies the legal owners, and they decided to use the land they owned to set up nations.

They split one part into Christian Lebanon and Muslim Syria.

They split another into a small Jewish "Palestine", and a large Muslim Trans-Jordan.

They also created Iraq.

Very little land was privately owned because the Ottomans kept most of it as "Sultan land".

The Jews did indeed buy up as much as they could. Arabs in Palestine only owned about 4% of the land, but whatever they did hold title to was recognised as theirs.