Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was compared to the terrorists behind the Paris attacks. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – In the latest scathing criticism of Israel coming from Turkey’s government, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing “crimes against humanity” equivalent to the three Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris last week, in which a combined 17 people were killed.

“Netanyahu has committed crimes against humanity, the same like those terrorists who carried out the Paris massacre,” Davutoglu said in televised remarks, according to AFP.

Davutoglu pointed to the 2010 Israeli boarding of the Mavi Marmara flotilla that tried to break the blockade on Gaza, an incident in which nine Turkish nationals were killed after they attacked Israeli forces with clubs and poles on the deck of the vessel. Davutoglu also noted Israel’s actions in last summer’s war between the Jewish state and the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.

“Just as the massacre in Paris committed by terrorists is a crime against humanity, Netanyahu, as the head of the government that kills children playing on the beach with the bombardment of Gaza, destroys thousands of homes… and that massacred our citizens on an aid ship in international waters, has committed crimes against humanity,” Davutoglu said.

Earlier this week, Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan, who is a strong supporter of Hamas, slammed Netanyahu for attending the Jan. 11 mass anti-terrorism rally in Paris, accusing the Israeli prime minister of carrying out “state terrorism.”

Netanyahu responded that “[Erdogan’s] shameful remarks must be repudiated by the international community, because the war against terror will only succeed if it’s guided by moral clarity.”

“President Erdogan’s words not only are slanderous but downright dangerous, increasing hatred against Israel in Turkey and the Muslim world,” David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, said in a statement Thursday. “Where are the voices around the world, other than laudably in Washington, condemning the latest in a litany of outrageous, hostile rhetoric from Erdogan and other Turkish leaders?”

The U.S. State Department had expressed “strong disagreement” with Edogan’s comments on Netanyahu.

Additionally, a member of Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, Ibrahim Melih Gökçek, told a gathering of youths on Jan. 11 that because Israel is angry with France for supporting a recent Palestinian statehood resolution at the United Nations, it is “certain” that Israel’s Mossad spy agency is behind the recent Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris.