Turkey cuts trade ties with Israel; Israelis will look for alternatives / Article

After ten years of tension, Israel and Turkey restored diplomatic ties last year and sought common directions for cooperation. However, after the terrorist group “Hamas” attacked Israel, Turkey sharply criticized Israel’s extended war in the Gaza Strip, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan even called Israel a “terrorist state”. The deterioration of relations on the political stage has also echoed in the trade relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv.

Turkey sees the crackdown on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as unacceptable, and in response in April imposed trade restrictions on Israel on a range of products, including cement and steel and iron construction materials. At the time, the announcement followed accusations against Israel that it had blocked Turkish efforts to airlift aid to the Gaza Strip. Turkey, on the other hand, has now decided to expand trade ties, including all goods in the restrictions. The Turkish Ministry of Trade has announced that exports to and imports from Israel have been suspended.

And this will be done until the Israeli government allows the unhindered flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Ankara will work to ensure that these restrictions do not affect the Palestinians.

There are opinions that Turkey’s statements, both in April and now, are related not only to the deterioration of general relations, but also to public and political pressure on the Turkish president to turn against Israel.

“We’ve seen protests in Turkey calling for an end to trade with Israel. We’re seeing opposition political parties use this issue against Erdogan and his party. We saw it in the local elections in March, where the ruling party came second in terms of votes and basically Erdogan had to pay the price that he is reacting only rhetorically and now we see that he is responding to this pressure,” said Gallia Lindenstrauss, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies.

According to the expert, the war on the trade front does not mean that Turkey is severing all ties with Israel, because it would not be beneficial for Ankara.

“I think that Turkey does not want to break relations with Israel completely. At least for now we are talking about economic measures against Israel, but Turkey understands that it needs relations with Israel in order to have political influence in the Middle East. Israel cannot be ignored, communication channels have should be and, I think, Ankara still has this position and it still does not cut all ties.”

Responding to Turkey’s move, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on the “X” social network that this is what a dictator is doing, trampling on the interests of the Turkish people and the business community, while ignoring international trade agreements. The minister stated that the Israeli government will work to create immediate alternatives to trade with Turkey by increasing local production and finding other suppliers.

The Israeli Manufacturers Association has called on the government to respond with countermeasures, imposing 100 percent tariffs on all imports from Turkey for the next three years and considering the possibility of banning some imports indefinitely. According to the association, Israel should expand its domestic production of food and construction materials to break its dependence on Turkey.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, the volume of trade between the countries reached 6.8 billion dollars last year. 76% of them were Turkish exports. But according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel’s imports from Turkey reached $4.6 billion last year. Turkey is therefore Israel’s sixth largest source of imports. And steel, machinery, minerals and fuel, as well as fresh produce and foodstuffs were imported from the Turks.