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Turkey creeps toward Temple Mount, inaugurates new center in Jerusalem

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The center is a kind of guest house, featuring a restaurant and cafe. It proudly features the flags of Turkey and the Palestinian Authority.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Turkey has inaugurated a building it has renovated as an activity center on a street near the Temple Mount, Israel Hayom reports on Wednesday.

The center is a kind of guest house, featuring a restaurant and cafe.

The new center features the Turkish and Palestinian flags, pictures of Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the latter likely due to his resistance to Zionist efforts to rebuild the Land of Israel then under Ottoman control. Also at the center are books available to guests on the “true inheritance” of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, according to Israel Hayom.

A film is projected at the center featuring Erdogan speaking about “occupied Jerusalem.”

The renovations were carried out by the Turkish-government funded Cooperation and Coordination Agency, also known as TIKA. TIKA has invested millions of dollars into 63 different projects “defending and strengthening the Muslim heritage and character of Jerusalem” since 2004.

The paper says that Amir Abu Hadjiee, who runs the center, posted on social media several years ago items that identified with the head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, which was outlawed by Israel in 2015 for criminal activities and its support for Hamas. He also posted an illustration of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004.

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Dr. Mordechai Kedar, who reported on the new center, says it’s a foothold of revolutionary Islam in the heart of Jerusalem, Israel Hayom reports.

“This is how they buy the public with a big Turkish embrace, through business, tourists and money,” Kedar said.

The center “embodies the spirit of the Muslim Brotherhood coalition, which Erdogan leads, against the Muslim regimes like Saudi Arabia or Jordan, which now find themselves in retreat and weakened in Jerusalem.”

Israel Hayom reported on Monday that since December, Israel and Saudi Arabia have been conducting secret talks concerning giving the Saudis a presence on the Temple Mount.

Jordan, which is in charge of Muslim buildings on the Temple Mount, wants Saudi support to help fend off the challenge from Turkey to its authority in Jerusalem.