Confusing report on anti-Semitism
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 06, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - AP carries a story saying the Turkish Jewish Community urges Turkey to prosecute anti-Semitic acts. Calls to the community indicate some confusion as the group first says the statement was only issued to foreign media, later, denying any statement
An international headline was the latest explosive yesterday in Turkey's continuing war of words over Israel, amid allegations that rhetoric is fueling anti-Semitism.
Carried internationally by the Associated Press, a story sent to 1,700 newspapers worldwide that said: "Turkey urged to prosecute anti-Semitic acts." The story then went on to attribute the call for swift government action by Turkey to the Musevi Cemaati, the umbrella organization representing Turkey's Jewish community.
Later, a community spokeswoman yesterday denied making any such demand of Turkey's government.
In the original story, quoting the community's demand to crack down on anti-Semitism, the Associated Press wrote: "The group Musevi Cemaati, or Jewish Community in Turkish, said that some Turkish ’fringe’ newspapers and other media were continuing to disseminate anti-Semitic messages, including terms such as ’bloody Jews’ and criticism of the Torah." The story continued to quote Silvyo Ovadya, the head of Musevi Cemaati, from a television interview a week ago in which he said, "prosecutors must take legal action against these, but they are not," he said. The story then went on to report that "Musevi Cemaati said Wednesday that it was aware of only one legal case involving an allegedly anti-Semitic act.
Contradictory statements
Calls to the community group by the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review yesterday indicated some confusion. First a woman who declined to give her name said the statement was only issued to foreign media. Later, that answer was updated so that no statement had been made this week, and all earlier statements had been distributed to foreign and domestic media at the same time.
A spokesman in Istanbul for the AP, said the story did not come from an official community statement, but from an unidentified caller who was "assumed" to be from the community.
"Ordinarily, this might be a tempest in a quotation teapot we could ignore," said David Judson, editor-in-chief of the Daily News. "But amid real and legitimate fears of anti-Semitism, conflicting messages from the government that we have reported and increasingly high emotions, a headline going around the world on such thin sourcing is news in and of itself."
Ankara will not cut ties with Israel: Turkey's Gül
Despite the growing uneasiness between Turkey and Israel over the Gaza crisis, Turkey's President Abdullah Gül said yesterday that Turkey would not cut its diplomatic ties with Israel and would continue to work for regional peace, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.
Gül elaborated on Turkish-Israeli bilateral ties and the general situation in the Middle East during his visit to Saudi Arabia. "We value our relations with Israel in the direction of contributing to the peace process," he told reporters yesterday, while reviewing his talks in Riyadh. "To reach toward peace you must talk and trust each other. Turkey’s diplomatic ties with Israel are important to the peace process," he stated, while responding to local media’s insistent questions on Turkey’s ties with Israel.
He repeated Turkey’s support of a Saudi Arabia-led Arab peace proposal and called on Israel to back it too. "I hope Israel will (positively) evaluate it and a lasting settlement will be reached," he said. As to whether Turkey’s close ties with Hamas would create problems in its European Union bid, Gül said these were two different issues that had no direct connection.
"Turkey supports the entirety of the Palestinian people. The reason why we mention Hamas is that they are the ones who rule Gaza. Otherwise, we have no such a policy of favoring a specific group and discriminating against others. There are several groups in Palestine and it is up to them," he said.
Carried internationally by the Associated Press, a story sent to 1,700 newspapers worldwide that said: "Turkey urged to prosecute anti-Semitic acts." The story then went on to attribute the call for swift government action by Turkey to the Musevi Cemaati, the umbrella organization representing Turkey's Jewish community.
Later, a community spokeswoman yesterday denied making any such demand of Turkey's government.
In the original story, quoting the community's demand to crack down on anti-Semitism, the Associated Press wrote: "The group Musevi Cemaati, or Jewish Community in Turkish, said that some Turkish ’fringe’ newspapers and other media were continuing to disseminate anti-Semitic messages, including terms such as ’bloody Jews’ and criticism of the Torah." The story continued to quote Silvyo Ovadya, the head of Musevi Cemaati, from a television interview a week ago in which he said, "prosecutors must take legal action against these, but they are not," he said. The story then went on to report that "Musevi Cemaati said Wednesday that it was aware of only one legal case involving an allegedly anti-Semitic act.
Contradictory statements
Calls to the community group by the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review yesterday indicated some confusion. First a woman who declined to give her name said the statement was only issued to foreign media. Later, that answer was updated so that no statement had been made this week, and all earlier statements had been distributed to foreign and domestic media at the same time.
A spokesman in Istanbul for the AP, said the story did not come from an official community statement, but from an unidentified caller who was "assumed" to be from the community.
"Ordinarily, this might be a tempest in a quotation teapot we could ignore," said David Judson, editor-in-chief of the Daily News. "But amid real and legitimate fears of anti-Semitism, conflicting messages from the government that we have reported and increasingly high emotions, a headline going around the world on such thin sourcing is news in and of itself."
Ankara will not cut ties with Israel: Turkey's Gül
Despite the growing uneasiness between Turkey and Israel over the Gaza crisis, Turkey's President Abdullah Gül said yesterday that Turkey would not cut its diplomatic ties with Israel and would continue to work for regional peace, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.
Gül elaborated on Turkish-Israeli bilateral ties and the general situation in the Middle East during his visit to Saudi Arabia. "We value our relations with Israel in the direction of contributing to the peace process," he told reporters yesterday, while reviewing his talks in Riyadh. "To reach toward peace you must talk and trust each other. Turkey’s diplomatic ties with Israel are important to the peace process," he stated, while responding to local media’s insistent questions on Turkey’s ties with Israel.
He repeated Turkey’s support of a Saudi Arabia-led Arab peace proposal and called on Israel to back it too. "I hope Israel will (positively) evaluate it and a lasting settlement will be reached," he said. As to whether Turkey’s close ties with Hamas would create problems in its European Union bid, Gül said these were two different issues that had no direct connection.
"Turkey supports the entirety of the Palestinian people. The reason why we mention Hamas is that they are the ones who rule Gaza. Otherwise, we have no such a policy of favoring a specific group and discriminating against others. There are several groups in Palestine and it is up to them," he said.