Ankara (AA) - A group of protesters came together in front of Israeli ambassador's residence in the Turkish capital, Ankara, to mark the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 that resulted in the Israeli invasion of East Jerusalem, then a Jordanian territory.
The event, organized in Ankara and Istanbul by Turkish human rights association Mazlumder, saw the demonstrators wave Palestinian flags and chant slogans to protest the Jewish state and voice their claim on the historic city of Jerusalem and the mosque of Masjid al-Aqsa that it hosts, both venerated in Islamic tradition.
Similar protests are held during the day in two hundred venues around the world, said Ali Kacar, editor of Genc Birikim magazine, which supports the Palestinian cause.
Walid Zakariya Aqel, a Gazan war prisoner released in an Israeli-Palestinian prisoner exchange in 2011, read out a press statement.
"We gathered today to give Israel a message: we Muslims are a single community," Aqel said." We can never forget Masjid al-Aqsa, nor al-Quds (Jerusalem), nor Palestine."
In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the world stands against the oppressed and sides with the oppressor, Aqel said.
"Al-Quds and al-Aqsa are part of our faith," he said.
Aqel, freed while being tried in Israel with 16 back-to-back life sentences, was one of eleven Palestinian prisoners who came to Turkey after the exchange. Aqel was granted Turkish citizenship in December last year.
The Arab-Israeli war on June 5-10, 1948, known also as the Six Day War, was fought between Israel and neighboring Arab states Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The war resulted in a decisive Israeli victory and changed the Middle Eastern political landscape, as Israel expanded its territory by capturing the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
