Turkey censors TV series after row with Israel
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Turkey's public broadcaster TRT has removed scenes of Israeli violence against Palestinians from a TV series. |
| Turkey's public broadcaster TRT has removed scenes of Israeli violence against Palestinians from a TV series that caused a diplomatic row with Israel, the producer was quoted as saying Thursday. A scene showing Israeli soldiers shooting a row of blindfolded Palestinians was cut from the second episode, broadcast on Tuesday, Selcuk Cobanoglu told the Milliyet daily. Turkey's ties with Israel have been strained over Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip in December and January that killed nearly 1500 Palestinians, a third of them were children. Cobanoglu rejected accusations that the programme was inciting hatred against Israel, saying that the main theme was about love "and this will become more obvious in the upcoming episodes." TRT is sponsoring the 13-episodes series with the motto "7 countries, 7 headliners". "Separation" underlines that the believe will not dissappear in the holy territory which becomes symbol of the humanitarian joint place for both Palestinians and Israelis without discrimination between Muslims or Jews. First episode, titled "Palestine in Love and War", was shot in the first qibla (direction of the Muslim prayers) Al-Aqsa mosque and the most important place for Jewish believers, Wailing Wall. Other episodes of "Separation" was shot in Armenia, Chechnya, Iran, Ozbekstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan alongside Turkey. TRT officials were not available for comment. The series -- "Separation: Palestine In Love and In War" -- went on air on October 13. The first episode portrayed Israeli forces as shooting innocent Palestinian civilians, insulting and ridiculing them. Israeli soldiers were shown killing a newborn baby, a little girl and an elderly man on his way to pilgramage in Mecca. Observers say the series was inspired by true events and actions carried out by Israeli soldiers. Turkey has said bilateral ties will continue to suffer unless Israel ends the humanitarian tragedy in the Gaza Strip and revives peace talks with the Palestinians. /106 |
