Erdoğan rejects plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has strongly rejected the American and Israeli plan of the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, stressing that “Palestine belongs to Palestinians and Gaza belongs to Gazans.”

“Any proposal that would expel Palestinians from the lands they have lived in for thousands of years, no matter how it is introduced, has no value in our view,” Erdoğan said in his address to the Group of Parliaments in Support of Palestine in Istanbul on April 18.

The group hosted by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş brought parliamentarians from prominent Muslim countries to discuss the ongoing tragedy in Gaza where around two million people have been stranded.

Erdoğan, in his address to the group, explained how Türkiye sees the latest developments in Palestine and made important calls on the international community to raise their voice against “the Israeli genocide on Palestinians.”

Defying plans introduced by the United States and Israel to expel Palestinians from Gaza, Erdoğan said “such plans will never be approved.”

“I want to underline this once again from here: Gaza belongs to Gazans and Palestine belongs to Palestinians,” the president stressed.

The only way to resolve the problem in the Middle East is to endorse a two-state formula that pledges a sovereign State of Palestine based on 1967 borders, Erdoğan said, reiterating that the struggle of the Islamic world will not pause until this objective is reached.

Erdoğan slammed the Western powers for remaining silent on the continued genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli government who also totally blocks the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“In slightest incident, Western states are quick to impose sanctions, but I ask, where are they against Israel? Where is the BBC? Where is CNN?” Erdoğan asked, recalling that 212 journalists were killed while covering Israeli massacres in Gaza.

“The Israeli administration is trying to eliminate the Palestinians it could not kill with bombs by stopping aid and, in a way, by causing hunger, thirst and lack of medicine,” Erdoğan stated, repeating that the death toll since October 2023 has climbed to nearly 60,000 people, mostly women and children.

“More than 7 percent of the Palestinian population in Gaza have either been killed or crippled,” he stated.

The Israeli government is trying to spread the conflict to other geographies, namely to Syria and Lebanon, Erdoğan said, adding that, “This shows Israel does not want peace or comfort in our region.”

Israel is acting like a “rogue organization,” he said, warning that it cannot ensure its own security by destabilizing its neighbors.

The international community should do more to push Israel to stop its genocidal crimes in Gaza including holding the perpetrators accountable before international courts, Erdoğan said.

He also criticized the Muslim world for failing to take effective measures against Israel, saying “I say this with regret, with a wounded heart – unfortunately, the Islamic world has also failed to fulfill what was expected of it on Gaza.”