Türkiye’s First Lady Emine Erdogan has stressed that Israel’s atrocities in Palestine constitute a "post-modern Holocaust," and are part of a calculated campaign to erase a people and their culture from history.
"This is not a war. It is an attempt to impose a global order where only the strongest survive, while other lives are discarded without hesitation," Erdogan said in an address at the Doha Forum 2024 in Qatar.
She urged the international community to confront the ongoing violence.
Noting that 44,000 civilians, including 16,000 children, have been killed in Palestine's Gaza during Israeli attacks and that critical infrastructure from hospitals to schools and orphanages have been destroyed, Erdogan brought the legitimacy of Israel’s justification of "self-defence" into question.
"Who is Israel protecting itself from by dropping more than 70,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza, half of the population of which is under the age of 18?" she asked.
The first lady stressed that what is unfolding in Palestine is a test of "humanity's collective conscience and the values we claim to uphold."
