DTN News: Turkey TV Series Further Strains Israel Relations

DTN News: Turkey TV Series Further Strains Israel Relations

* Israel protests to Turkish diplomat

* Dispute follows Turkey's banning Israel from air drill

* TV drama was "state-sponsored incitement", Israel says

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) JERUSALEM, Israel - October 16, 2009: A Turkish television drama series which depicts an Israeli soldier shooting dead a Palestinian baby, strained already tense relations on Thursday between Israel and Turkey, a strategic Muslim ally.

In this Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008 file photo, Turkish naval ships are seen in the Mediterranean Sea off the shore of the Israeli city of Haifa during a joint U.S. , Israeli and Turkish military exercise. Turkey has canceled an annual joint air force drill that was to have taken place this week because it opposed Israeli participation, the Israeli military said Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009, in the latest sign of deteriorating relations between the two countries.

Previously close ties between the Jewish state and Turkey, a secular state with a Muslim population, have deteriorated since Israel's offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamist group Hamas.

Turkey has at the same time strengthened its relations with neighbouring Syria, where much of Hamas' leadership is based.Israel summoned a Turkish diplomat to protest at what it called "state-sponsored incitement" by state-owned TRT television's "Separation" series, in which actors playing Israeli soldiers and Palestinians fight street battles in Jerusalem."

The series, which has no connection to reality whatsoever, is not even suitable for an enemy country and certainly not for a country that has full diplomatic relations with Israel," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement.

The scene, broadcast on Israel's Channel Two television on Wednesday, showed a Palestinian father holding a baby above his head and an Israeli soldier deliberately shooting the infant.

GAZA ASSAULT

Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip in December and January killed 1,417 Palestinians, including 926 civilians, a a Palestinian rights group says. Israel has said 709 Palestinian combatants were killed along with 295 civilians and 162 people whose status it was unable to clarify.

Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed during the campaign, which Israel launched with the declared aim of ending cross-border rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

During a meeting with the Turkish embassy charge d'affairs, a Foreign Ministry official said Israel "cannot stand by when such blatant incitement is being broadcast against Israel and (Israeli) soldiers," a statement issued by the ministry said.

The official also said the portrayal of Israeli soldiers as "a master race eager to murder children" could endanger Israeli and Jewish tourists who visit Turkey.

Turkish officials in Ankara and Tel Aviv were not immediately available for comment.The show's producer, Selcuk Cobanoglu, told Reuters, "If the Israeli government is disturbed with this, it means they are disturbed with the reality when we go there and eyewitness what is happening there."

Turkey barred Israel from participating in a NATO war exercise this week and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the move was a result of public concerns over the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

The drill was postponed indefinitely after other nations, including the United States and Italy, refused to take part without Israel's air force.In January Erdogan, who heads the Islamist-rooted AK Party, stormed out on Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in protest over the offensive.

Turkey Related News....for full stories click on the links below

~ Who lost Turkey? Jerusalem Post

~ Turkey TV series further strains Israel relations Reuters