“Jerusalemi is our”, starts a fight between Netanyah and Erdogan

Israel's prime minister has said Palestinians should get used to reality -- that Jerusalem is Israel's capital -- in order to move towards peace and have distributed a “sherr” with ugly exchange of statements with Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan.

Benjamin Netanyah said that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel for 3,000 years and had never been the capital of any other people. He spoke at a time of constant protests in the Muslim and Arab world following the U.S. decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Violence erupted near the American Embassy in Lebanon and elsewhere on Sunday. Speaking in Paris after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, Netanyah said that “attempts to deny the thousand-year connection of the Jewish people in Jerusalem are absurd. You can read that in a very good book, it is called the Bible.

You can hear it in the history of the Jewish communities through our diaspora... Where is the capital of Israel except Jerusalem? According to him, “The sooner Palestinians accept this reality, the sooner we go to peace.” Jerusalem had been treated with a neutral policy from the United States for at least seven decades.

Trump's decision overturned this policy on the city, which has been at the heart of conflict with Palestinians and Israelis. There are some areas known as sacred by Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, especially in East Jerusalem. Israel has always seen Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians claim that East Jerusalem will be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

In Turkey, President Recep Tayip Erdogan said before a major rally in Istanbul that he would not abandon Jerusalem to a country that kills children. Netanyahu said the Turkish leader had attacked Israel.

“I am not used to taking lessons on morality from a leader who bombards Kurdish villages in Turkey, who jails journalists, helps Iran overcome sanctions

International and helping terrorists, including Gaza, kill innocent people.” Erdogan has described Jerusalem as the matter of “red line” for Muslims and has warned that Turkey could sever diplomatic relations with Israel on the issue.

Turkey and Israel have restored their diplomatic relations only last year, six years after Turkey interrupted them in protest of the murder of nine pro Palestinian Turkish activists, when Israeli commandos boarded a ship, trying to pass the Israeli blockade in Gaza.