ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA NEWS RELEASE   ZOA Condemns Turkey Pres. Erdogan for Urging Israel’s Destruction, Supporting Hamas Nazis — Strong U.S. & Israel & UN Response Needed ZOA Urges the U.S., Israel and the UN to demand the arrest of the Hamas leaders in Turkey. Zionist Organization of America National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement: ZOA supports Congressional efforts to persuade the U.S. State Department to take strong action against Turkey’s support for the Hamas terror regime. On October 26, 2023, forty-four bipartisan Congressmembers signed a letter strongly urging U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to take decisive action to hold the Republic of Turkey (a.k.a. Türkiye) accountable for supporting and facilitating Hamas’ operations. The bipartisan Congressional letter emphasizes that Turkey’s and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “longstanding political, logistical, and financial support to Hamas is well-known and a matter of grave concern.” The letter documents, with extensive citations, that: • Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) maintains ideological affiliations with Hamas’ parent, the Muslim Brotherhood. • Erdoğan consistently overtly defends Hamas, including telling Prime Minister Netanyahu that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization.” • Erdoğan invokes the Hamas charter’s antisemitic genocidal threats that “those who think they own Jerusalem [Jews] better know that tomorrow they will not even be able to hide behind trees.” • For over a decade, Erdoğan made Turkey a sanctuary for Hamas – “the second-largest Hamas base after Gaza.” • Since 2012, Turkey hosted Hamas’s military wing in Istanbul, headed by Hamas’s second-in-command, Saleh al-Arouri, who publicly praised Hamas’s October 7 attack. Al-Arouri admitted responsibility for kidnapping and murdering three Israeli teens in June 2014. • Other Hamas officials working in Istanbul include Hamas Finance Bureau Chief Zaher Jabarin, who directs and funds Hamas terror operations against Israel; and Jihad Yaghmour, who manages terrorist units throughout Judea and Samaria, helps establish non-governmental organizations as fronts for Hamas, and serves as a liaison to the Turkish government and its intelligence service. • Hamas’ Istanbul office facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars to support Hamas operatives; directed numerous terrorist attacks against Israel (including the June 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens, the murder of an Israeli couple in Judea/Samaria in front of their four children, and the thwarted assassination attempt on Jerusalem’s former mayor); functioned as a crucial hub for strengthening Hamas’s capacity to launch attacks against Israel; provides training for Hamas operatives; engages in money laundering through Turkish financial institutions, and facilitates the infiltration of terrorists into Israeli territory. • Erdoğan and Turkish officials frequently meet with senior Hamas leaders, including U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorists Ismail Haniyeh and al-Arouri. • Turkey granted citizenship and issued passports to Hamas operatives, including Al-Arouri, facilitating their ability to move freely throughout the region and plan terror operations, despite the fact that Al-Arouri is subject to a $5 million bounty by the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program. • The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on several Turkish-based individuals and entities that facilitated financial and travel services to jihadist groups, including Hamas, the Islamic State, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. • In 2020, a U.S. judge ruled that a case could proceed against Turkey’s Kuveyt Turk Bank for aiding and abetting Hamas. • In September 2023, Israel discovered 16 tons of rocket production materials originating from Turkey, including ammonium chloride, en route to Gaza.   CONTINUE READING   DONATE     Share This Email Share This Email Copyright © Zionist Organization of America 2023, All rights reserved. Zionist Organization of America | 633 Third Ave, 31 B, New York, NY 10017 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]