TURKISH TV SERIES ANGERS ISRAEL

BBC NEWS
iddle_east/8308124.stm
2009/10/15 00:05:51 GMT

Israel’s foreign minister has ordered Turkey’s ambassador to be
summoned over a Turkish TV series that portrays Israeli soldiers
killing children.

Avigdor Lieberman said the programme, whose first episode was broadcast
on Tuesday, incited hatred against Israel.

In one clip screened on Israeli news channels, an Israeli soldier
takes aim at a smiling young girl and kills her.

The complaint is the latest to strain the relationship between Turkey
and Israel.

Strategic ties

In a statement, Mr Lieberman said the series, which "presents
Israeli soldiers as the murderers of innocent children, would not be
appropriate for broadcast even in an enemy country and certainly not
in a state which maintains diplomatic relations with Israel".

Another clip from the series – which tells the story of a Palestinian
family – reportedly shows a bullet fired by an Israeli soldier
travelling in slow motion towards a Palestinian child.

The programme was broadcast on Turkey’s TRT One Channel.

Turkey is one of the few Muslim countries to have relations with
Israel, but these have suffered since Israel’s offensive in Gaza
in January.

Last week, Ankara cancelled an international military exercise in
which Israeli pilots were due to participate.

Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak sought to play down the rift,
stressing that the two states shared "longstanding, important and
strategic" ties.