BREAKING: Israeli Security Forces Arrest Turkish Professor and Cultural Official; Gag Order Slapped on Reporting Story

“Terrorist bomb-thrower,” Prof. Tekeli at Haram al Sharif

.חשיפה: איש אקדמיה טורקי, פרופ’ ג’מיל טקלי, עצור כבר שבועיים וחצי בשב”כ בחשד לתכנון פיגוע
.הוטל צא”פ

Israel’s security forces are ratcheting up tension between Turkey and Israel with a new round of arrests of Turkish nationals in Israel.  Last month, three Turks were arrested and, after the action aroused protests in Turkey, deported from Israel.

Two weeks ago, the Shabak arrested a Turkish professor, Cemil Tekeli, from Medeniyet University.  He was arrested at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul.  At a protest in Turkey, his family and supporters say that his interrogators have charged him with ‘plotting a terror attack.’  This story has been banned from the Israeli media under a judicial gag order sought by the Shabak.  If you are Israeli, this is your only way to find out why this story remains unreported there.

Personally, the closest I’ve ever seen to a professor inciting revolution is Angela Davis’ gunfight at a California prison in the 1960s.  And she wasn’t even a professor.  This Turkish professor doesn’t seem like the type to pack a pistol.  And how does a professor plan a terror attack as he’s leaving the country?  Did he plant to bombs somewhere in Israel and then make a Great Escape?  Or is he planning a terror attack in Turkey that required him to seek advice in Israel?

Ibrahim Özdemir, pictured outside Jerusalem police station

He has had his detention extended (unlike the original Turkish detainees who were almost immediately deported).  In other words, he’s being treated like a typical Palestinian security detainee.  During his detention he can expect to be harshly interrogated.  It’s not clear whether he’s been permitted to see his lawyer.  But typically, Israeli abuse involves refusal to permit contact with legal counsel.  This allows interrogators maximum leverage over their victim.

Today, a second Turk was nabbed: Ibrahİm Furkan Özdemir.  He is the director of the Turkish Cultural Center in Jerusalem.  The Center is sponsored by the state-funded Yunus Emre Institute.  He was released after an hour of police questioning.  Presumably, they wanted to warn him before he begins his Million Muslim March on the Haram al Sharif to redeem the sacred site from the infidel Jew!

The Israeli news site, Mako, published a highly incendiary account of the arrest claiming that Turkey is inciting Palestinian revolt while the State (of Israel) stands by and does virtually nothing.

Clearly, Israel and Turkey are still playing a game of chicken, despite the fact that last year Israel apologized for the Mavi Marmara massacre and paid a $20-million settlement to the victims’ families.  Israel doesn’t like uppity Arabs or Muslims and Erdogan is certainly someone who isn’t going to be a good boy and do what Israel wants.  So Israel plays this little game of arresting Turks to let Erdogan know that it can bite back.  It would all be just rather pathetic if Israel wouldn’t be sitting on a powder keg of Muslim anger and resentment capable of blowing the region sky-high.