ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan waded into the debate over US college campus protests on Thursday, saying authorities were displaying “cruelty” in clamping down on pro-Palestinian students and academics.
Demonstrations have spread on campuses across the United States over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, prompting police crackdowns and arrests at some venues such as Columbia University in New York.
“Conscientious students and academics including anti-Zionist Jews at some prestigious American universities are protesting the massacre (in Gaza),” Erdogan told an event in Ankara.
“These people are being subjected to violence, cruelty, suffering, and even torture for saying the massacre has to stop,” he said, adding that university staff were being “sacked and lynched” for supporting the Palestinians.
Turkiye, a NATO ally of the United States, has sharply criticized Israel’s assault on Gaza and what it calls the unconditional support it receives from Western countries.
The US is a top supplier of military aid to Israel and has shielded the country from critical United Nations votes.
“The limits of Western democracy are drawn by Israel’s interests,” Erdogan said. “Whatever infringes on Israel’s interests is anti-democratic, antisemitic for them.”
More than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s nearly seven-month military offensive, Palestinian health officials say, after Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people and took 253 hostages during an Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Turkiye’s Erdogan criticizes US crackdown on college protests
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Turkiye’s Erdogan criticizes US crackdown on college protests
- “Conscientious students and academics including anti-Zionist Jews at some prestigious American universities are protesting the massacre (in Gaza),” Erdogan told an event
- “These people are being subjected to violence, cruelty, suffering, and even torture for saying the massacre has to stop“
Israeli settlers target wells, disrupt water supply to 19 Palestinian areas near Ramallah
- Settlers broke windows, doors, control panels and cut the cables rendering the wells completely inoperable
- Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian homes and businesses have increased since October 2023
LONDON: Israeli settlers attacked water wells in the Ein Samia area, northeast of Ramallah, overnight, causing a disruption in the water supply for several hours, according to the Jerusalem District Water Department's report on Sunday.
The Palestinian Authority’s water authority reported that settlers targeted wells number two, four, and six in Ein Samia, disrupting their operation from Saturday at 10 p.m. until Sunday at 9 a.m. The attackers broke windows, doors, control panels and cut the cables, rendering the wells completely inoperable.
It warned that attacks on the primary water source jeopardized access to water for over 19 areas in the occupied West Bank, worsening the difficulties faced by residents near Ramallah.
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian homes and businesses have increased since October 2023.
These incidents include vandalism, arson, shootings, and the destruction of agricultural lands and water sources, often intended to pressure residents into leaving their land. Israeli authorities often provide protection for settlers during attacks, including military deployment to accompany them and suppress local resistance, the Wafa news agency reported.
Excluding East Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, some 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, along with about 3 million Palestinian residents.
