Israel has become ‘a burden humanity can’t bear,’ says Turkey’s foreign minister
Turkey ‘incites to genocide’ against Israel, FM Sa’ar charges
Turkey’s foreign minister continued a series of extremely hostile and antisemitic statements against Israel by Turkish officials on Thursday, dubbing the Jewish state “a burden that humanity can no longer bear.”
Speaking to CNN Türk, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, “No matter which way you look at it, there is no parameter to continue to bear these people… Israel is not only Turkey’s problem, and it is not only President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s problem.”
“These people have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear. The human conscience cannot bear it, political systems cannot sustain it, and economic systems cannot sustain it either. Everyone must step forward, take a diplomatic position, and impose the necessary sanctions on these people,” he added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar quickly hit back at Fidan’s “nauseating words,” which he said are “clear incitement to genocide.”
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) July 2, 2026
“Dehumanization of the Jewish people and portraying them as an ‘unbearable burden’ is the classic language of history's greatest tyrants. The enlightened world and Turkey's allies in NATO must unequivocally condemn this explicit call for Israel's destruction,” Sa’ar urged.
The exchange marked yet another new low in the deteriorating relations between the formerly allied countries.
Last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel takes Erdoğan's recent hostile rhetoric “very seriously, because if there is one thing we have learned from the history of our people, it is that when someone says they intend to destroy you, you should take them seriously.”
A month ago, Turkey's interior minister suggested that Jerusalem could one day be reconquered by the successor state to the Ottoman Empire. "Just as we witnessed the liberation of Damascus, Aleppo, and Karabakh, God willing, one day we will also witness the liberation of Jerusalem,” he said.
“Hardly a day goes by without Erdogan calling for the destruction of the State of Israel,” Netanyahu noted, adding that he would “draw the attention of our American friends to these remarks. We are not ignoring them.”
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has continued calling Erdoğan a “friend,” praising his role in the region, and last week even hinted the U.S. could sell advanced F-35 stealth jets to Turkey, prompting protests from Republican lawmakers.
This came after Trump said Erdoğan could have entered the war to support Iran against Israel: “He was a prime candidate to go into the war with Iran – maybe on the Iran side, because he’s not a big fan of Israel,” Trump claimed.
“I asked him to stay out. He stayed out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week. “Erdogan is a great leader, a very strong person… Everything I’ve ever asked from him, he’s done.”
Asked whether he had prepared gifts ahead of an upcoming NATO summit in Turkey, President Trump said, “I’m going to probably do something that’s going to make [Erdogan] very happy.”
However, he deflected concrete questions about the possible sale of F-35s, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance stating, “There are certain things that we have to certify that have happened in order to comply with American law. The president has asked us to do that… so they can get the F-35s… This is really a congressional thing.”
Reuters also reported that the administration notified Congress of its intention to approve the sale of U.S.-made jet engines for Turkey’s locally-produced KAAN fighter jet, which is currently under development, in a deal valued at approximately €613 million.
Israel and Greece have opposed the potential sale of stealth fighters to Turkey, citing concerns that it could erode their technological edge over the Turkish Air Force.
Following years of generally positive relations between the two countries, Erdoğan sharply criticized Israel after the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident, before the two sides restored full diplomatic relations in 2022. In 2023, Erdoğan also announced plans to visit Israel.
However, following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, relations deteriorated again. Erdoğan has since expressed strong support for Hamas leadership, declined on several occasions to refer to Hamas as a terrorist organization, and compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
Hanan Lischinsky has a Master’s degree in Middle East & Israel studies from Heidelberg University in Germany, where he spent part of his childhood and youth. He finished High School in Jerusalem and served in the IDF’s Intelligence Corps. Hanan and his wife live near Jerusalem, and he joined ALL ISRAEL NEWS in August 2023.
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