17 Jan 2010

New Turkish film on Israeli war crimes

A damning Turkish motion picture, aimed at depicting the "Israeli crimes against humanity," is set to further alienate Ankara from Tel Aviv.

The movie would "depict Israel as it is - with bloody hands, merciless... flouting all human values," against a backdrop of the Palestinian suffering in the blockaded Gaza Strip, the national daily Vatan quoted Turkish scriptwriter Bahadir Ozdener as saying, according to an AFP report.

"What we do is fiction,” said Ozdener. “But what about what they do, their crimes against humanity? They are real."

Tel Aviv took issue with Ankara over the "Valley of the Wolves" - the TV series boasting Ozdener's contribution which, besides other patriotic depictions, featured the emancipation of a Turkish boy captured by the Israeli intelligence apparatus, Mossad.

Reacting to the series, Israel called Turkish ambassador Oguz Celikkol to account, seating him on a low couch and removing the Turkish flag from the table of discussion. Celikkol was later quoted by the Anatolia news agency as denouncing the humiliating treatment as one "that will go down in the books of diplomatic history," AFP added.

Downplaying the Israeli ire at the matter, Ozdener said, "It is Israel who must show remorse.... If they cannot see themselves in the mirror, we know how to hold the mirror to their face."

The bilateral relations took a mortal blow after Israel brought the Gaza Strip under heavy aerial, artillery and naval bombardments at the turn of the year.

In October, Ankara canceled a military exercise with Israel in denunciation of the raids which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan later criticized the international community for seeking to incriminate Islam while Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza.

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