Palestinians demonstrated their joy at the presidential campaign victory of incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday by ascending to the Temple Mount and chanting a traditional Muslim call to massacre Jews.
Erdogan announced his victory on Monday after he won 52% of the vote. Turkey has acted as a haven for Hamas operatives and the terrorist organization that is the elected government of Gaza was among the first to congratulate Erdogan.
Not soon after, thousands of Palestinians ascended to the Temple Mount and conducted a rally to celebrate Erdogan’s victory in front of the Dome of the Rock built on the site of the Jewish Temples. The rally featured mass chants of “Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad sa yahud”, meaning “Jews remember Khaybar, Muhammad’s army is returning”. This chant refers to a Muslim massacre of Jews in 628 CE.
The Anti-Defamation League explained the nefarious significance of this phrase on its website:
“Invoking this slogan today at such a demonstration problematically shifts the complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious battle between Islam and Judaism. Moreover, in celebrating a past military defeat of Jews, this chant can be perceived as a threat of armed violence or forcible expulsion against Jews today.”
In some countries, this chant is classified as incitement to violence and is illegal.
Erdogan was first elected as president of Turkey in 2014. Under Erdogan, Turkey has had sporadic relations with Israel with intermittent periods of political hostility. There were moves toward rapprochement recently and in 2022, the two countries reopened embassies that had been closed since 2018.
Erdogan has frequently made the Temple Mount a priority in his public statements. Last month, he criticized Israel for quelling Palestinian violence at the site.
“I condemn the vile acts against the first qibla of Muslims and call for the attacks to be stopped as soon as possible,” Erdogan said.
Qibla refers to the direction Muslims pray. Mohammad, the founder of Islam in Saudi Arabia, initially prayed towards the site of the destroyed Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. He later changed this and instructed his followers to pray towards the Kaaba in Mecca, forbidding them from praying towards the site on the Temple Mount. For this reason, Al Aqsa, the only mosque that existed on the Temple Mount before Israeli rule began in 1967, was constructed to the south of the Dome of the Rock. In this manner, Muslims were able to pray in the mosque with their backs facing the site of the Jewish Temples.
