A Turkish action movie that opened in cinemas across the country Jan. 28 begins with Israeli soldiers raiding a Turkish aid ship and shooting at unarmed activists on deck. A Turkish undercover agent then appears in Jerusalem vowing to hunt down and kill the Israeli commander who ordered the attack.
Based on the May 31 incident on a Turkish ship that tried to break the blockade of Gaza as part of an international flotilla, the movie “Valley of the Wolves — Palestine” could worsen already tense relations between Turkey and Israel.
Ironically it opened one day after Turkey held its first state ceremony in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The ceremony reportedly was held Jan. 27, on International Holocaust Day, at the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul.
Officials in Turkey say their problems are with the Israeli government rather than Turkish Jews.
In the film, the Turkish protagonist and his two hit men chase after the villain Moshe ben Eliezer. Israelis are portrayed as merciless tyrants who kill Palestinian women and children and who long to take over Muslim lands to create a “greater Israel” spanning from “the river Euphrates to the Nile.”
The popular TV series “Valley of the Wolves,” on which the feature-length film is based, already caused a diplomatic dispute between Turkey and Israel last year, and Israeli Ambassador Gabby Levy told Turkey’s Anatolia news agency this week that the movie was slanderous.