Late last month, a Turkish tourist visiting Israel stabbed a police officer in Jerusalem's Old City and was subsequently shot dead on the spot. The terror attack, which resulted in the officer being moderately injured, raised questions about the presence of Turkish tourism in Israel. The answer is yes, there is Turkish tourism, but not necessarily in the positive sense of the word.
Each year, around 30,000 tourists from Turkey enter Israel. Several Turkish Islamist organizations are behind these tourist groups, with the most prominent being TIKA, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, which operates under the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism led by Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, a close associate of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In 2017, the former Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism visited the Temple Mount and encouraged Muslims worldwide to visit these holy sites.
Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, Director General of the Waqf responsible for Islamic holy sites including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, expressed his desire to see more Turkish visitors, noting that these visits help assert that Jerusalem and the mosque belong to Islam.
In 2023, TIKA’s president visited Jerusalem, inaugurating a music room funded by the agency at the Yabous Cultural Center, which hosts artists and writers with a clear anti-Israel stance, including those affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The TIKA president also hosted an iftar dinner at the Ambassador Hotel, with Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, former Mufti of Jerusalem who had been previously arrested for incitement, as the main guest.
Opposite the entrance to the Western Wall on Chain Street is "Khan Abu Khadija," a café established by TIKA to host Turkish tourists. The café's Facebook page reveals the substantial number of Turkish tourists and their affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. The walls of the café feature images of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who opposed the establishment of a Jewish state during Herzl’s time, and President Erdogan alongside Turkish flags.
The café offers books and souvenirs featuring the Palestinian and Turkish flags with the Temple Mount in the center. It is operated by Imad Abu Khadija, a resident of Jerusalem’s Old City. Tourists receive a special guidebook promoting Erdogan's and the Muslim Brotherhood’s messages about Jerusalem, all funded by the Turkish government.
In 2018, the Shin Bet arrested Turkish professor Cemil Tekeli, visiting as a tourist, on suspicion of transferring funds from Turkey to Hamas in the West Bank. According to the organization, Tekeli was part of Hamas’s Turkish branch, headed by Jihad Yaghmour.
Research by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), founded by Haim Silberstein, a former senior advisor at the Ministry of Tourism and current leader of the Keep Jerusalem initiative, shows that Turkish-led Islamic tourism also comes from other European capitals at discounted rates. One leading group, Golden Dome Travel, offers tours in Jerusalem with the central narrative of promoting Islamic tourism as a counter to Christian and Jewish tourism.
Golden Dome Travel’s Facebook page lists tour dates in Turkish and English, emphasizing Islamic history and Ottoman heritage. They offer affordable packages, with a six-day tour, including accommodation, food, and a guide, costing around 5,000 shekels. Their aim is to turn visitors into ambassadors for Al-Aqsa worldwide, with a marketing slogan featuring a hijab-wearing woman against the backdrop of the Dome of the Rock: "We return today. We will return again. We will always be there. We will never give up."
Some Turkish tourists return home deeply influenced by these tours. For instance, Kemal Kahraman wrote an article titled "The Road to Jerusalem," describing how their guide discouraged using the term "Israel" for Jerusalem, insisting on "Palestine" instead. Similarly, Turkish tourist Ismail Yasin expressed concern over the low number of Muslim visitors to Jerusalem and accused Israeli forces of representing occupation and aggression.
Ran Yishai, head of research at JCPA, who monitors Turkish activities in Jerusalem, was not surprised by the identity of the Turkish attacker or President Erdogan’s policies. "I would be surprised if another week passes without a suitable Israeli response to the absurd situation where Turkish entities promoting their government’s agenda continue to operate in Jerusalem," Yishai told Ynet. He urged the Jerusalem Municipality, Israeli Police, and Prime Minister's Office to convene an emergency meeting to curb Turkey’s dangerous influence in the capital.
Yishai, a former Director-General of the Jerusalem Affairs Ministry and a former ambassador added, "In 2019, then-Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared a fight against Turkish influence, and flags disappeared from the streets. We must remember that Arab residents await our social and political response to improve their quality of life. There is no reason for Turkey to do this in our place in Jerusalem or anywhere else while inciting and supporting terrorism to restore Jerusalem to Ottoman and Islamic caliphate days."