Turkey’s President Erdogan says UN and Western values are ‘dying’ in Gaza

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at the United Nations for inaction on Gaza and accused Israel of turning the Palestinian territory into the “world’s largest children’s and women’s cemetery”.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, he said, “In Gaza, not only are children dying, but also the United Nations system. The values the West claims to defend are dying, the truth is dying, and the hopes of humanity to live in a more just world are dying – one by one.”

“I am asking you bluntly here: Are those in Gaza and the occupied West Bank not human beings? Do children in Palestine have no rights?”

An outspoken critic of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, Erdogan also chastised the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for dragging the Middle East region deeper “into war”. He urged the international community to stop “Netanyahu and his murder network,” comparing the prime minister to Adolf Hitler.

“Just as Hitler was stopped by the alliance of humanity 70 years ago, Netanyahu and his murder network must be stopped by the ‘alliance of humanity’,” he said.

The Turkish president called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli military operations have killed at least 41,467 people. In Israel, the number of those killed in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 was at least 1,139, while more than 200 people were taken captive.

“An immediate and permanent ceasefire should be achieved, a hostage-prisoner exchange should be carried out, and humanitarian aid should be delivered to Gaza in an unhindered and uninterrupted way,” Erdogan said.

Other regional leaders also spoke out against Israel’s war on Gaza at the UNGA on Tuesday.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II ruled out the possibility of his country becoming an “alternative homeland” for the Palestinians, warning that their forced displacement by Israel would be a “war crime.”

He said he was responding to proposals floated by “extremists who are taking our region to the brink of an all-out war”.

The monarch urged the international community to join “a massive relief effort to deliver food, clean water, medicine and other vital supplies” to the Gaza Strip, where nearly a year of war has triggered “unprecedented suffering.”

“I urge all nations of conscience to unite with Jordan in the critical weeks ahead on this mission,” he said.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said Israel’s war in the Gaza strip was a “genocide” as he addressed world leaders at the UNGA.

“The blatant aggression that befalls the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip today is the most barbaric, heinous and extensive aggression,” he said, calling the conflict “a crime of genocide”.

‘A clear genocide’

Besides Gaza, Erdogan also threw support behind Lebanon, where Israel has launched widespread attacks targeting Hezbollah in recent days.

Speaking about the latest wave of deadly Israeli attacks on Lebanon, the Turkish leader said, “What more are you waiting for to stop the massacre network that endangers also the lives of its own citizens along with the Palestinian people and drags the entire region into war for the sake of its political prospects?”

He criticised the UN Security Council for failing to order a halt to the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon.

“UN Security Council, what are you waiting for to prevent the genocide in Gaza and to say ‘stop’ to this cruelty, this barbarism?” he asked.

Erdogan singled out countries supporting Israel in an “unconditional manner”, asking, “How long are you going to be able to carry the shame of witnessing this massacre?”

“I would like to state very clearly and loudly here that the Israeli government is disregarding basic human rights, trampling on international law at every opportunity, and practising ethnic cleansing – a clear genocide against a nation,” Erdogan said.

He said that when the UN was established, expectations for global stability, peace and justice were reborn.

“To put it bluntly, unfortunately, in the last few years, the United Nations has failed to fulfil its founding mission and has gradually become a dysfunctional structure,” he said.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies