*ANKARA: Turkey on Thursday said Israel was trying to form “an apartheidstate”, and denounced as racist a new law declaring that only Jews have theright of self-determination in the country.*

A spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan called on the internationalcommunity “to react to this injustice happening in front of the entireworld’s eyes” after the Israeli Knesset passed the “nation-state” law onThursday, angering Palestinians.

Turkey and Israel have long been at loggerheads over Israel’s policy towardthe Palestinians and Jerusalem’s status. Erdogan has called for a summit ofMuslim leaders twice in the past six months after US President Donald Trumpdecided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Condemning the law, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin criticized what hecalled “this racist move that amounts to erasing the Palestinian peoplefrom their homeland physically and legally”.

In a series of tweets, Kalin also repeated Ankara’s long-standingobjections to the construction of Jewish settlements on occupied territory.“We reject the Israeli government’s efforts to form an apartheid state,” hesaid.

The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini expressed herconcern, saying the law would complicate a two-state solution to theIsrael-Palestinian conflict.

The largely symbolic law, backed by Israel’s right-wing government, passedthrough parliament after months of political argument. “This is a definingmoment in the annals of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel,”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset.

Turkey’s foreign ministry also criticized the law.

“Identifying the right to self-determination as a right given only to Jewsis the result of an outdated and discriminatory mentality,” it said in astatement.

Turkey and Israel, former allies, expelled each other’s top diplomats inMay during a row over clashes when dozens of Palestinians were killed byIsraeli forces on the Gaza border. However, the two sides continue to tradewith one another. – APP/AFP