Israel has condemned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after he described Zionism as a “genocidal ideology,” compared Israel’s conduct to Nazi Germany and the Khmer Rouge, and called for Muslim countries to unite against the Jewish state.
Speaking Friday, Erdoğan accused Israel of destabilizing the Middle East and claimed that the world was repeating its historic failure to stop atrocities. He cited the Holocaust and Cambodia’s killing fields while alleging that Israel was pursuing lawless policies in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and Lebanon.
Jerusalem responded sharply on Saturday, calling the remarks antisemitic incitement and accusing Erdoğan of reviving false blood libels against the Jewish people.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the Turkish leader was trying to distract from his own record, including the imprisonment of political opponents, military actions in neighboring countries and Ankara’s support for Hamas.
The antisemitic Erdoğan seeks, every few days, to reach new heights of wild incitement against the Jewish state in an attempt to divert attention from his actions against his own people and across the region.
Erdoğan has destroyed Turkish democracy, imprisoned his political… https://t.co/hW3QmKCbUh
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) August 29, 2026
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism and escalated the exchange, accusing Israel of genocide and likening Israeli institutions to the propaganda machinery of Nazi Germany.
The clash highlights a growing rupture between Jerusalem and Ankara, whose relations have deteriorated sharply since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
At the center of the dispute is Erdoğan’s attack on Zionism itself. Zionism is the Jewish national movement for self-determination and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. Treating that movement as inherently genocidal is not a criticism of a specific Israeli policy; it is an assault on the legitimacy of the Jewish state.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance includes comparisons between Israel and the Nazis among examples that may constitute antisemitism. Erdoğan’s rhetoric goes further still, using the memory of the Holocaust to turn its victims into perpetrators.
For Israel, the message from Ankara is no longer diplomatic disagreement. It is open hostility.
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates
