Pro-Jihadist Groups Conduct Seminars in Turkish Schools Supporting Hamas

On 13 Decem­ber 2023, the Nordic Mon­i­tor report­ed that Islamist groups in Turkey sym­pa­thet­ic to Hamas were hold­ing edu­ca­tion­al sem­i­nars on Pales­tine in Istan­bul’s schools in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Turk­ish Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion. The “My Pales­tine” project, led by Beytül­makdis Öncü­leri and the Jerusalem Research Plat­form, aims to edu­cate thou­sands of mid­dle and high school stu­dents. Beytül­makdis Öncü­leri, estab­lished in 2014, focus­es on the prin­ci­ple that Jerusalem is an Islam­ic ter­ri­to­ry. Con­cerns are ris­ing about increased rad­i­cal­iza­tion in Turkey, giv­en the gov­ern­men­t’s sup­port for Hamas and Pres­i­dent Erdo­gan’s anti-Israel stance. Instances of vio­lence linked to Hamas pro­pa­gan­da, like the 2016 assas­si­na­tion of the Russ­ian ambas­sador and the 2015 Ankara bomb­ing, under­score these fears. The spread of pro-Hamas nar­ra­tives through media and reli­gious chan­nels is also con­tribut­ing to a rise in anti­semitism and the poten­tial for fur­ther vio­lent attacks.