Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday Turkey was becoming a "dark dictatorship," as he hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statements about Israel's Nationality Law.
"Erdogan is massacring Syrians and Kurds and has imprisoned tens of thousands of his citizens," Netanyahu said in a statement. "The fact that the great 'democrator' Erdogan is attacking the Nationalism Law is the greatest compliment for this law."
"Turkey under Erdogan is becoming a dark dictatorship, while Israel is meticulously maintaining equal rights for all its citizens, before and after the law."
Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) also slammed Erdogan, saying that "The State of Israel will not receive sermons on ethics from a dictator who pursues and murders the Kurdish minority inside and outside his country."
Earlier Tuesday, Erdogan branded Israel "the world's most Zionist, fascist and racist state" after the Israeli parliament passed a law defining the country as the nation state of the Jewish people.
He claimed there was "no difference between Hitler's obsession with the Aryan race and Israel's understanding that these ancient lands are meant only for Jews."
"The spirit of Hitler, which led the world to a great catastrophe, has found its resurgence among some of Israel's leaders," he added in a speech to his ruling party.