Israel chides Turkey over TV series portraying soldiers murdering children

Israel chides Turkey over TV series’ ‘incitement’

JERUSALEM — An Israeli foreign ministry official rebuked Turkey’s acting ambassador Thursday over a TV series Israel says depicts Israeli soldiers murdering children.

Naor Gilon, deputy director for the Western Europe desk, says he told Turkish envoy Ceylan Ozen the series was “incitement” and could spark attacks against Jews visiting Turkey.

Gilon met Ozen at ministry headquarters in Jerusalem amid increasing tensions between the countries.

Muslim Turkey’s ties with Israel have deteriorated since Israel’s January offensive against Islamic militants in Gaza — codenamed Operation Cast lead — which killed some 1,400 Palestinians.

Last week Ankara canceled a military exercise in which Israeli pilots were to have participated.

Clips of the program, screened by Turkey’s state-owned TRT television, show a military force in what appear to be Israeli combat fatigues committing acts of murder and violent repression against Palestinians under their control.

Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War.

Producer Selcuk Cobanoglu told Israeli news site Y-net, however, that the characters in his series do not represent Israelis.

“The uniforms … only look similar. The Turkish and American militaries have uniforms like that as well,” he said. “We love the people in Israel. We love the Israelis.”