Director of the Department of Religious Affairs (DRA) Mehmet Gormez delighted Turkey’s Muslims when Jerusalem was added to the itinerary of Umrah tours (the noncompulsory pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina). Gormez first announced Jerusalem’s inclusion on the tour the last week of December 2014, saying that an agreement was reached with Israel. Interestingly, negative reactions came from a small group of Palestinians.

The DRA added Jerusalem to the tour in response to heavy demand, and the first group of 149 pilgrims and five officials left Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport for Tel Aviv on April 15. Palestinian activists, charging that inclusion of Jerusalem on the Umrah tour means legitimizing Israel’s occupation, launched a campaign against the DRA decision.

Bearing in mind that Israel-Turkey relations have not been normal since the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara flotilla going to Gaza in 2010, the DRA’s decision could be interpreted as a new step in that direction. Preacher Burhan Sener, accompanying the group as a DRA escort, said, "The entire Christian world is there to visit the church from where Prophet Christ ascended. Jews are there to visit the Wailing Wall. Only Muslims were staying away. The step by the DRA will be a significant material and spiritual support to Palestinians."

Sener said that, with visas obtained from Israel, the group will go to Jerusalem for a three-day visit via Tel Aviv. They will visit Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, Hebron, the Dead Sea and a list of holy sites before going to Amman and flying from there to Mecca. According to the DRA’s website, during their Umrah trip that costs $1,695-$1,780, visitors will stay at the Royal Wings Hotel in Jerusalem.