\n Turkey on Monday blasted Israel's two-day closure of a Jerusalem holy site, following a deadly attack, as a \"crime against humanity.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, includes the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is venerated by Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam, and by Jews as the most sacred site in Judaism.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel closed the ultra-sensitive compound on Friday and Saturday after the attack .\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This decision is a crime against humanity, a crime committed against the freedom of religion. From the point of view of human rights, it's utterly unacceptable,\" Turkish government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus, who is also deputy prime minister, said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It really is an unacceptable decision, and wounding to the highest degree,\" added Kurtulmus, who was speaking at a news conference in Ankara after a cabinet meeting.\n<\/p>\n
\n President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a fervent supporter of Palestinians, normalised relations with Israel in June last year after bilateral ties deteriorated over a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound ship that killed 10 Turkish activists.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, ties remain volatile. In May, Erdogan spoke out angrily over legal plans in Israel to prevent the use of loudspeakers on minarets to summon Muslims for nightly prayers.\n<\/p>\n
\n Erdogan accused Israel of practices similar to South African apartheid -- remarks that caused Israel to angrily describe him as a \"serial human rights violator.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Last week in contrast, Israel said Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is Erdogan's son-in-law, would visit by year's end to conclude an agreement for the building of a gas pipeline linking the two countries.\n<\/p>\n
\n Friday's attack saw three Arab Israelis open fire on Israeli police, killing two, before fleeing into the compound, where they were shot dead by security forces.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was among the most serious incidents in Jerusalem in recent years and heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israeli authorities said the gunmen had come from the flashpoint holy site to carry out the attack.\n<\/p>\n
\n They took the highly unusual decision of closing the compound for two days and then installed metal detectors at its entrances, triggering anger from Muslim worshippers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey on Monday blasted Israel's two-day closure of a Jerusalem holy site, following a deadly attack, as a \"crime against humanity.\" The Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, includes the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque. It is venerated by Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-33915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n