Turkish Jews Asked to Raise Funds for Palestinians

by Shelomo Alfassa

(January 15, 2009) After the start of the Gaza campaign to destroy Hamas, every Turkish school child was sent home with a letter issued by Dr. Huseyin Celik of the Turkish Ministry of Education. The letter, which was distributed to all the schools throughout the country, requested that students and their families provide money for Palestinians in Gaza. The letter was sent to all students, including the Jewish ones, with an envelope to return the money.

Clearly, the government letter may be considered a type of coercion. The idea that Jewish students were also issued this letter to take home to their families is alarming, because there is great potential to make Jewish families feel obligated to provide funds for the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza. Do schools keep track of which families did not provide Money? What happens if a child does not return money to the school? Would Turkish Jews be targeted for refusing to providing funds to the Gaza Arabs?

This letter unmistakably requires the Jewish people to concern themselves with allegations of dual-loyalty, an issue which plagues many Jews in Muslim
countries.

A translation of the letter, issued by the Turkish government, is provided below by David Hasday, a Turkish Jew. Hasday indicates that this type of letter has never been issued previously, even for for fallen Turkish soldiers or victims of terror in Turkey.