Scandal Erupts in Turkey Over Video of Summer Campers Calling for Death of Jews
Turkish campers being coached to call for death of Jews. Photo: Twitter screenshot.
Members of what appears to be an extremist Muslim sect in Turkey were caught on video calling for the death of Jews, causing a scandal in the majority-Muslim nation.
According to The Jewish Chronicle, the video went viral on Twitter last week and shows a group of girls at what appears to be a summer camp. A woman shouts yehudiye, “To the Jew,” to which the girls reply, “Death!”
The entire group then shouts, “Palestine will be set free!”
Yahudiye ölüm Filistin kurtulacak Ayasofya Açılacak pic.twitter.com/tuQHYvDlzh
— Abdulsettar (@Abdulsettar76) July 31, 2019
It is not certain, but it is believed that the video shows members of the Aczmendi, a very extreme Muslim sect in Turkey that seeks a sharia-ruled state, rejects secularism and advocates for the ethnic cleansing of Israel in favor of an Arab state. It believes Turkey should undertake the conquest of Israel to accomplish this.
Turkish MP Garo Paylan denounced the video and called it child abuse and a hate crime. He pledged to bring criminal charges against the camp counselor and the organization behind it.
“Hate speech opens the path to hate crimes,” he said.
The left-wing newspaper Cumhuriyet called the video a “scandal.”