Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday an Israeli law declaring that only Jews have the right of self-determination legitimizes oppression and shows that Israel is a fascist and racist country.
In a speech to ruling Justice and Development Party lawmakers, Erdogan also said Israel had shown itself to be a "terror state" by attacking Palestinians with tanks and artillery and that the "spirit of Adolf Hitler had re-emerged" among some Israeli administrators.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the criticism, saying, "Erdogan butchers Syrians and Kurds and imprisons thousands of Turkish citizens. The fact that Erdogan, the great 'democrat,' is criticizing the nation-state law is the biggest compliment this law can get.
"Under Erdogan's rule, Turkey is turning into a dictatorship. Israel adamantly upholds equal rights of all its citizens. It did so before this law was passed and it will continue to do so," he stated.
Habayit Hayehudi leader Education Minister Naftali Bennett retorted, "Israel will not be lectured to by a dictator who persecutes the Kurdish minority in and outside Turkey."
Largely symbolic, the new Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People stipulates that "Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it."
It further cements the status of state symbols and Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the State of Israel, and strips Arabic of its designation as an official language alongside Hebrew, instead awarding it a "special status" that enables its continued use in Israeli institutions.
The law, which passed after months of political argument, was sharply criticized by the country's Arab minority, with Arab lawmakers calling it "racist" and "verging on apartheid."
The European Union expressed concern over the new Israeli law, saying it would complicate a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to convene on Tuesday to debate issues pertaining to the Middle East, and sources in the Israeli Mission said the delegation was bracing for blowback over the law.
