A group of US House of Representatives directed strong criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, describing the statements he made recently about Israel as anti-Semitic.
The eight co-chairs of the bipartisan joint working group on combating anti-Semitism in the House of Representatives condemned Erdogan’s statements.
The House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism issued a joint statement condemning the recent antisemitic remarks of Turkey's President Erdogan, which are tantamount to blood libel against the Jewish people, and call on him to retract & renounce his remarks. pic.twitter.com/r4YaaljHm9
— Ted Deutch (@RepTedDeutch) May 20, 2021
Legislators are firmly convinced that the leader of a partner country with the United States should refrain from “using the same anti-Semitic terms that have been used over the decades countless times to legitimize violence against Jews.”
The deputies called on Erdogan to abandon his statements, warning that they were only in the interest of “fueling the dangerous rise in the global level of anti-Semitism and increasing the danger to the Jewish community.”
Erdogan recently accused Israel of practicing terrorism against the Palestinians, against the backdrop of the current military escalation around the Gaza Strip, saying: “This is their nature. They are killers to the point of pushing them to kill five or six-year-olds, and they only accept by sucking their blood.”
The US State Department described Erdogan’s statements as anti-Semitic, and Ankara accused the United States in return for distorting the essence of the concept of anti-Semitism.
Source: RT