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Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Burhanettin Duran in Antalya, Turkiye on April 13, 2025. [Hakan Nural – Anadolu Agency]
Turkey has rejected comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Ankara of harbouring “imperial ambitions”, describing the remarks as a cheap tactic aimed at diverting attention from Israel’s crimes in the region.
Burhanettin Duran, head of the Turkish presidency’s communications directorate, said on Tuesday that Israel’s “hysterical approach” to Turkey’s growing power and influence was “ridiculous”, adding that Ankara would continue to stand firmly with those seeking peace and stability.
Duran made the comments in a social media post responding to statements by Netanyahu during a summit held in Jerusalem on Monday, attended by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
He said Israel’s long-standing hysterical approach, as a destabilizing force in the region, towards Turkey’s influence “can only be described as ridiculous”, adding that under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has become a guarantor of peace and stability.
Duran strongly criticised Netanyahu’s government, saying it had brought “blood and tears” to the region. He said Israel continues to act as an occupying power in Palestine and Syria, while attempting to conceal “expansionist ambitions under the banner of national security”.
He said Israeli officials’ references to the “imperial ambitions of others” amounted to a glaring contradiction, particularly in light of the perpetration of one of the most horrific genocides in history.
Duran said Israel has launched attacks on seven countries in the Middle East over the past two years, adding that Netanyahu’s government has been “a disaster in every sense of the word”, not only for the region but also for Israeli society.
He accused Israel of trying to divert attention from its actions by attacking Turkey, stressing that Ankara would not be deterred from supporting the Palestinian people.
“We in Turkey will continue to stand firmly with all those who seek peace and stability,” Duran said, adding that such remarks would not prevent Turkey from backing “our Palestinian brothers”.
He concluded by saying that peace would ultimately prevail, despite efforts to undermine it.
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Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
People, holding flags and banners, gather to demand sanctions against Israel during pro-Palestinian protest and march through the city’s streets in Melbourne, Australia on August 24, 2025. [Recep Sakar – Anadolu Agency]
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) has today, 24 December, issued a statement condemning the government decision to invite Israeli President to the country.
“This decision represents a grave moral failure and a direct insult to the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have spent more than two years protesting Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians and demanding accountability under international law;” the statement read.
APAN said, “President Herzog is not a symbolic or ceremonial figure. As Israel’s Head of State throughout its genocidal assault on Gaza, he has made public statements widely condemned as genocidal intent, including asserting that an “entire nation” bears responsibility and that “there are no innocent civilians in Gaza” – language that legitimises collective punishment and mass civilian killing.”
It would be recalled that President Herzog was named in proceedings before the International Court of Justice for his incendiary remarks. He has also openly rejected Palestinian self-determination, declaring that a two-state solution would be a “reward to terrorists.”
APAN expressed concerns that Australians may be prevented from protesting Herzog’s visit and face criminal charges — “a dangerous escalation that erodes democratic freedoms to shield a visiting foreign leader from accountability.”
APAN concluded its statement asserting that “Australia must not welcome those who are active participants and proponents of Israel’s genocide and not reward war crimes with diplomatic invitations, nor suppress dissent to shield them from scrutiny.”
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
A campaigner during the Defend Our Juries protest in support of Palestine Action at The Peace Garden, Tavistock Square, central London, November 22, 2025
600 educators sign open letter urging government to protect lives of prisoners jailed for more than a year without trial over alleged direct action linked to Palestine solidarity
EDUCATION union leaders called for the “immediate release” of hunger-striking prisoners today after two Palestine Action-linked detainees were taken to hospital.
Thirty-year-old Amu Gib, held at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey while awaiting trial, is on day 50 of a hunger strike, while 28-year-old Kamran Ahmed, held at Pentonville prison in London, is on day 42.
They are among eight prisoners admitted to hospital since the action began on Balfour Day, November 2, according to Prisoners for Palestine, which warned that deaths were likely without urgent intervention.
Dozens of members of the national executive committees of the National Education Union (NEU), University and College Union (UCU) and the Educational Institute of Scotland are among 600 educators and trade unionists who have signed an open letter urging the government to protect the lives of prisoners jailed for more than a year without trial over alleged direct action linked to Palestine solidarity.
The unions represent more than 600,000 staff across schools, colleges and universities.
The letter condemns an escalation in repression against Palestine activists and highlights police statements that protesters using the word “intifada” could face arrest.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich holds a map of an area near the apartheid colony of Maale Adumim near Jerusalem in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine, on August 14, 2025. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
“The ONLY reason Israel gets away with this naked thievery is US military and political support,” said one observer.
Israel’s Cabinet on Sunday finalized approval of 19 new Jewish-only settler colonies in the illegally occupied West Bank, a move the apartheid state’s far-right finance minister said was aimed at thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Cabinet ministers approved the legalization of the previously unauthorized settler outposts throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, bringing the total number of new settlements in recent years to 69.
The move will bring the overall total number of exclusively or overwhelmingly Jewish settlements—which are illegal under international law—to more than 200, up from around 140 just three years ago.
Included in the new approval are two former settlements—Kadim and Ganim—that were evacuated in compliance with the now effectively repealed 2005 Disengagement Law, under which Israel dismantled all of its colonies in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank.
“This is righting a historic injustice of expulsion from 20 years ago,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—who is a settler—said on Sunday. “We are putting the brakes on the rise of a Palestinian terror state.”
“We will continue to develop, build, and settle the inherited land of our ancestors, with faith in the righteousness of our path,” Smotrich added.
@PeaceNowIL Israel’s security cabinet decided (per media reports) to establish 19 new West Bank settlements, including Kadim and Ganim — settlements evacuated under the 2005 disengagement plan. More: https://t.co/ujJlLBtHGLpic.twitter.com/IxGjMtjSOr
Following an earlier round of approval for the new settlements last week, Palestinian presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, “All Israeli settlement activity is illegal and constitutes a violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres earlier this month denounced Israel’s “relentless” settlement expansion.
Such colonization, said Guterres, “continues to fuel tensions, impede access by Palestinians to their land, and threaten the viability of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous, and sovereign Palestinian state.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials—some of whom, including Smotrich, deny the very existence of the Palestinian people—have vowed that such a state will not be established.
Some doubted Trump’s threat, with Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) executive director Sarah Leah Whitson reacting to the new settlements’ approval by posting on X that “the ONLY reason Israel gets away with this naked thievery is US military and political support.”
Israel seized and occupied the West Bank including East Jerusalem along with Gaza in 1967, ethnically cleansing around 300,000 Palestinians. Many of these forcibly displaced people were survivors of the Nakba, the Jewish terror and ethnic cleansing campaign that saw more than 750,000 Palestinians flee or be forced from Palestine during the foundation of the modern state of Israel.
Since 1967, Israel has steadily seized more and more Palestinian land in the West Bank while building and expanding colonies there. Settlement population has increased exponentially from around 1,500 colonists in 1970 to roughly 140,000 at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993—under which Israel agreed to halt new settlement activity—to around 770,000 today.
Settlers often attack Palestinians and their property, including in deadly pogroms, in order to terrorize them into leaving so their land can be stolen. Israeli colonists have also attackedIsrael Defense Forces soldiers they view as standing in the way of their expansion.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice—where Israel is currently facing a genocide case related to the Gaza war—found the occupation of Palestine to be an illegal form of apartheid that must be ended as soon as possible. The ICJ also ruled that Israeli settler colonization of the West Bank amounts to annexation, also a crime under international law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that an “occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
As the world’s attention focused on Gaza during the past two years, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,039 Palestinians—at least 225 of them children—in the West Bank. This year, at least 233 Palestinians, including at least 52 children, have been killed so far, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.
On Saturday, Israeli occupation forces shot and killed two Palestinians in the northern West Bank, including a 16-year-old boy, Rayan Abu Muallah, who the Israel Defense Forces said was shot after he threw an object at its troops.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather outside the United Nations headquarters, in front of the U.S. Mission to the UN, during an emergency picket titled “Hands off Gaza: Reject U.S.-Israeli Occupation,” in New York City, United States, on November 17, 2025. [Selçuk Acar – Anadolu Agency]
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has accused the United States of providing political cover that allows Israel to perpetuate genocide in the Gaza Strip and impose a “slow death” on the civilian population.
In a statement published on Sunday, the Geneva-based organisation said US support has enabled Israel to maintain the status quo in Gaza, despite the catastrophic humanitarian situation. It argued that Washington has effectively made any progress towards a ceasefire conditional on the return of the last body from Gaza, a position the group described as “shameful complicity” in ongoing crimes.
The Monitor said such US-backed conditions contribute directly to continued ceasefire violations, the sustained siege, mass displacement of civilians, and the destruction of what remains of homes and livelihoods across the Gaza Strip.
It stressed that “the fate of more than two million people in Gaza should never be tied to political or military conditions that may be difficult, or even impossible, to fulfil on the ground,” adding that fundamental human rights must be guaranteed “immediately and unconditionally”.
The organisation said the scale of devastation in Gaza, combined with the systematic destruction of search-and-rescue equipment and emergency vehicles, has made fulfilment of Israeli conditions for progress on the ceasefire extremely difficult. It said these conditions are being used as a pretext to prolong the siege and deepen humanitarian suffering.
The Monitor added that US support for Israel in this context reinforces an illegitimate conflation between negotiation processes and guaranteed human rights. It said such rights must be implemented without conditions, compromises or political exploitation, regardless of the circumstances.
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Vote Labour for Genocide.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
A campaigner during the Defend Our Juries protest in support of Palestine Action at The Peace Garden, Tavistock Square, central London, November 22, 2025
