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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent remarks about requesting the Siloam Inscription from Türkiye, stressing that Jerusalem’s sacred heritage is not for bargaining, and that Ankara would not give a single pebble that belongs to Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, as he reaffirmed Ankara’s unwavering stance on the Palestinian cause.
“And now, shamelessly, they are still chasing after the inscription. We will not give you the inscription – nor even a single pebble belonging to al-Quds al-Sharif (Jerusalem),” Erdoğan said at Teknofest 2025 in Istanbul.
He continued by saying: “We are the heirs of Sultan Abdülhamid — walking the same course. We will never relinquish our claim on Jerusalem.” He then saluted the Palestinians in Gaza, as he hailed their resilience and determination not to abandon their land, despite Israel’s genocidal attacks.
Erdoğan’s remarks came after Netanyahu publicly claimed that he had requested the 2,700-year-old inscription from Türkiye in 1998. The artifact, which has been preserved in Istanbul since the Ottoman era, has long been the subject of repeated Israeli demands, each time rejected by Ankara.
Speaking at a ceremony to reopen a first-century path connecting the Pool of Siloam to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Netanyahu referred to a meeting that allegedly took place in 1998 with then-Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz in which Netanyahu claimed Yılmaz refused to return to Israel a tablet with a Hebrew inscription found near the site because “it would prove that Jerusalem was a Jewish city 2,700 years ago.”
Netanyahu claimed he extended an offer to Yılmaz to replace the Siloam Inscription with “one of the thousands of Ottoman artifacts in our museums,” but was turned down.
Netanyahu said Yılmaz rejected his request out of concern that the electorate led by then-Istanbul Mayor Erdoğan would be outraged by the tablet being given to Israel.
“Jerusalem is our city. Mr. Erdoğan, this is not your city. This is our city. It will always be our city. It will never be divided again,” Netanyahu said.
His comments followed harsh criticism from Erdoğan, who earlier on Tuesday compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, saying “Zionist Israel can only be associated with terrorism and fascism.”
Erdoğan, one of the most virulent critics of Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, doubled down on his comparison on Wednesday, vowing Türkiye “will not allow unauthorized hands to pollute Jerusalem.”
For Erdoğan, the matter is bigger than a relic — it is about sovereignty, history and justice.
“Whatever insidious calculations they make, our struggle will continue until an independent Palestinian state is established within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” Erdoğan said.
Underscoring the universal significance of Jerusalem, he declared: “To defend Jerusalem is to defend the common values of humanity. To defend Jerusalem is to defend peace and humanity itself.”
