“The last people who said the Jews are a ‘burden on humanity’ were Hitler and Goebbels,” said Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who had recently used the phrase to describe Israel in an interview with CNN Türk.

“You’re in excellent company, Mr. Fidan,” Chikli added in his tweet, accompanied by an AI-generated image of Fidan standing next to a Nazi flag.

.@HakanFidan The last people who said the Jews are a “burden on humanity” were Hitler and Goebbels.
You’re in excellent company, Mr. Fidan. pic.twitter.com/31n61DCS6W

— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) July 3, 2026

Fidan on Thursday said Israel had become “a problem for the entire international community,” adding that “the Israeli authorities have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear.”

Fidan said Turkey had no intention of changing its position toward Israel and defended Ankara’s decision to halt trade with the Jewish state following the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Responding on social media, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused his Turkish counterpart of incitement to genocide, describing his remarks as “sickening.”

Turkish FM @HakanFidan’s sickening words are textbook incitement to genocide.

Dehumanizing the Jewish people as an “unbearable burden” is the classic, horrific language of history’s worst eliminationist regimes.

The civilized world and Turkey’s NATO allies must unequivocally…

— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) July 2, 2026