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Not the most burning issue these days, but I think a thread about #Turkey, #Israel and #Jerusalem is long overdue after I caught up on some of this week's developments. 1/
Turkey's decision to reconstitute Hagia Sophia as a mosque made international headlines. The Israeli media picked up on how #Erdogan's official announcement in Arabic included a reference to liberating the Al Aqsa mosque https://twitter.com/jenanmoussa/status/1281875108039196672 2/
Turkey has interests in East Jerusalem - although it is unclear to what degree and what permissions Israel and the Jerusalem Municipality have granted. Most activities, like Ottoman restoration projects and social services, are run by @mirasimiz and @Tika_Turkey. 3/
Nadav Shragai documented Turkish activities in East Jerusalem. I have questions about his findings, but it is the only serious effort I've seen to report this topic: https://jcpa.org/article/turkeys-intrusion-into-jerusalem/ 4/
It has been reported that not everyone is pleased with the presence of Turkish orgs in East Jerusalem. But to my knowledge only in the last month have there been two recorded incidents that illustrate some of these tension. 5/
On June 24, it was reported that the Jerusalem Municipality removed a @Tika_Turkey plaque adjacent to the Yusufiye cemetery (which rests alongside the eastern walls of the Old City). No license was permitted, according to authorities. https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/06/israel-destroys-turkey-plaque-jerusalem-activities-relations.html 6/
The video evidence is pretty clear. During the process of its removal the plaque was broken into multiple pieces. https://www.aljazeera.net/news/alquds/2020/6/24/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%8A%D9%87%D8%AF%D9%85-%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D9%8F%D9%88%D8%AB%D9%82-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A7 7/
A second reported incident happened on July 13 in front of the Turkish consulate building, located in East Jerusalem. According to this @dailysabah report, protestors appeared before the consulate and burned and Turkish flag.
https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/ankara-condemns-burning-of-turkish-flag-in-jerusalem/news 8/
https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/ankara-condemns-burning-of-turkish-flag-in-jerusalem/news 8/
The incident doesn't appear to have caused much of a stir and didn't get coverage in Israeli media (that I've been able to see). But the report did prompt a statement from #Turkey's MFA, so there is no doubt that Israeli officials are aware of this. 9/
Here is an image from the incident itself, captured by @anadoluagency
https://twitter.com/anadoluagency/status/1282765689569382402 10/
https://twitter.com/anadoluagency/status/1282765689569382402 10/
And another by AA journalist @turgutalpboyraz
https://twitter.com/turgutalpboyraz/status/1282852266597396486 11/
https://twitter.com/turgutalpboyraz/status/1282852266597396486 11/
The protest (of what appears to be a few people) was organized by the Jerusalemite Initiative, an NGO established to "empower Arabic speaking Israeli Christians...who are proud of belonging to Israel and support the full integration of Christians in the country." 12/
The Jerusalem Initiative is quite transparent about their role in the protest, as can been seen from their Twitter handle, @JerusalemiteI:
https://twitter.com/JerusalemiteI/status/1282745344418181120 13/
https://twitter.com/JerusalemiteI/status/1282745344418181120 13/
Co-founders of the Jerusalemite Initiative are @amitamitbarak1, who appears to have once held a senior leadership role in Im Tirtzu, and @ZarinaEli. Unclear whether they attended the protest. 14/
While it is easy to dismiss these unrelated incidents as a one-off, it is crucial that the municipality tries to diffuse tensions religious tensions before they boil over and continues to monitor this space in the coming months. 15/end
A late edition to this thread. I found one Israeli piece of coverage (by @makorrishon) with a quote from @ZarinaEli here: https://www.makorrishon.co.il/news/246477/
