Cutting Trade Ties is not Enough!
It is Necessary to Cut Off all the Main Arteries of the Occupying Jewish Entity in the Land of Palestine!

News:

Turkiye: The Ministry of Trade stated that the import and export with the Jewish entity is suspended “until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

Comment:

Turkey had previously announced on April 9 that it restricted the export of 54 product groups to the Jewish entity. Erdoğan had said that these restrictions “would continue until uninterrupted and sufficient humanitarian aid is delivered to Gaza.” However, TurkStat data refuted Erdoğan's statement. According to TurkStat data, in 2023, Turkey’s exports with the occupying Jewish entity amounted to 5.2 billion dollars, while imports from the Jewish entity amounted to 1.6 billion dollars. In this one-year period, the trade volume between the two countries amounted to approximately 6.8 billion dollars.

President Erdoğan stated that trade with the occupying Jewish entity was cut off and said, “We could no longer be patient in the face of this. We took our steps.” Erdoğan said that they “closed the door” by ignoring the 9.5 billion dollars of trade volume between the two countries. However, he did not specify which periods this trade volume covers.

However, while the Jewish entity has been attacking Gaza since October 7, Muslims in Turkey have been calling on the government to end trade ties with the Jewish entity. For a long time, the government defended that there was no trade with the Jewish entity and even called those who criticized the continuation of trade with the Jewish entity “Mossad agents”. And the Ministry of Trade announced in a statement that the import and export with the Jewish entity is suspended “until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

These statements made by President Erdoğan and the Ministry of Trade are a refutation of the government’s claim that the state does not trade with the occupying Jewish entity, but private companies do.

On the other hand, these statements made by the state mean that if the occupying Jewish entity allows the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, trade will resume with the Jewish entity that has occupied the blessed land of Palestine for 76 years and murdered tens of thousands of Muslims. In other words, it is a signal to return to normalcy.

Since Turkey had a will to end trade with the occupying Jewish entity, why did Turkey, which has not taken a single step for Gaza for 7 months, but has sent all the products that will be a life line for the occupying Jewish entity, take such a decision now?

After its defeat in the local elections, the government wanted to strengthen its hand even if just a bit on the Gaza issue in the domestic public opinion, because one of the reasons why the government lost the local elections was its passive stance on Gaza.

Another and fundamental aspect is that it is unlikely that the government would take such a decision independently of the US and with its own political will despite the US. Turkey is a satellite state in the American political orbit. It cannot act unilaterally, especially in its foreign policy. It is a state that mortgages its political will to America.

Before the government’s decision to cut off trade with the occupying Jewish entity, it had imposed a restriction on goods destined for the Jewish entity. Then, in order to prevent a possible military operation against Rafah by the Jewish entity, which the US does not want, the government said that Turkey decided to intervene in South Africa’s case against the Jewish entity in the International Court of Justice. Finally, the government announced that all imports and exports towards the Jewish entity were cut off.

If one looks carefully at all this, one can see that the government did not take this decision on its own, but rather as a matter of American politics in order to corner the Netanyahu government politically and put pressure on itbecause Joe Biden’s government wants to end the Gaza issue as soon as possible by increasing the pressure on the Netanyahu government and forcing it to come to an agreement due to the upcoming American presidential elections. Therefore, America wants to solve this issue through its apparatuses in the region - Turkey, Egypt and Arabia. At the same time, America is using its apparatuses in the region to put political pressure on Hamas in order to dictate its plans.

On the other hand, the government’s decision to cut trade is a decision taken for Netanyahu as a matter of American politics. It is not a decision against the Jewish entity. If Netanyahu, whom the US does not want, leaves power, the government will continue to normalize and trade with the vile Jewish entity that occupies the blessed land of Palestine and commits systematic genocide as before.

Finally, Muslims, masses and communities must be alert about one thing. The government’s cutting trade with the occupying Jewish entity should not mislead Muslims because the murderous Jewish entity is still killing Muslims. Therefore, they should put pressure on the government and call on it to send armies to Al-Aqsa that will deal with this matter once and for all and cut off all the main arteries of the occupying Jewish entity in the blessed land.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Yılmaz ÇELİK