Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the Israeli Knesset’s (parliament) decision to impose the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners is "essentially no different from Hitler’s policies against Jews."

“What is being done is discrimination; it is racism. It means implementing in Israel a worse version of the apartheid regime that was overthrown in South Africa in 1994," Erdogan said at a meeting of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) Women’s Wing.

"Is there any essential difference between Hitler’s monstrous policies toward Jews and the decision that the Israeli parliament has adopted with great fanfare? Are all these not a new manifestation of the policies of denial, destruction, oppression, and political executions against the Palestinian people?" he said.

The Turkish president said that imposing the death penalty only for Palestinians amounts to "apartheid' and turns law into an "instrument of racist fascism."

Erdogan stated that the Middle Eastern geography, of which Türkiye is a part, has experienced painful, difficult, and dark days in recent years.

"One conflict and hot clash begins before another ends, unfortunately. And it is generally women and innocent children who bear the brunt of this. The vast majority of the over 72,000 civilians mercilessly killed by Israel in Gaza are women and children.

In the 13-and-a-half years of civil war in our neighbor Syria, those who paid the greatest price were again women and children,” said Erdogan.

"Among the first victims of attacks on another neighbor, Iran, were once more women and children. In the early days of the war, an airstrike on a school in Minab took the lives of over 165 innocent children. Despite the ceasefire, Israel’s bombardment and occupation policy against Lebanon continued to victimize women and children the most.

"Look, since March 2, due to Israel’s attacks on civilian residential areas, 1.2 million Lebanese have had to leave their homes. More than 1,500 Lebanese brothers and sisters lost their lives in these attacks, while 4,700 were wounded.

"On the day the ceasefire was declared, Israel brutally killed 254 Lebanese. This genocide network, blinded by blood and hatred, continues to kill innocent children and women," he noted. (AA)

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