The Document of Trade with Israel

Özgür Özel expressed that trade with Israel is continuing in his group meeting today with the following words:

“Now, trade with Israel, which is said to be banned, is continuing at full speed. The current de facto situation is this; goods leave the port, while at sea, documents are arranged on paper, they are transferred to another ship, and trade continues. Oh Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; are you sincere or are we?”

However, trade may not be proceeding only in the way the CHP leader described. As seen in the table below, prepared according to TUIK data, there has been an unprecedented increase in exports to Palestine in dollar terms following the cessation of trade with Israel in May. This increase reached such a level that trade with Palestine from April to August exceeded the total of the previous 28 months. Therefore, I cannot help but ask whether the government is continuing trade with Israeli companies under the guise of Palestine…

So, why? There are many reasons for this and questions that arise in my mind depending on this reason:

1- Why might Palestine have needed this trade to an extent it had not before?

2- I would like to draw your attention, I am talking about trade with Palestine… Not humanitarian aid, that is… Which business person/people in Palestine paid such a large amount of money (378 million dollars between May and August)?

3- While total exports were 306 million dollars in the 28 months from January 2022 to April 2024, isn't there something strange about reaching these figures in just 4 months between May and August 2024, and this period coinciding exactly with the period when trade with Israel was cut off?

4- If we look at the items that increased exports the most, we see that construction materials and furniture stand out (36%). While the war continues in Gaza, what will Palestinian merchants do with so much construction material?

5- If these products are going to Israel under the guise of Palestinian merchants—since there is a war in Gaza and construction cannot be done—are these products being used to build new settlements for the settlers that Israel has placed in the West Bank, which is Palestinian land, with houses it has been building for years? In other words, is the government supporting Israel's silent occupation of the West Bank?

So, it seems that the government, which is trying to create a nationalist-conservative consolidation internally through the possibility of war with Israel, does not refrain from trading with Israel in foreign policy…

When this is the case, one cannot help but remember the late Uğur Mumcu:

“Conservative and nationalist rhetoric inside, bowing-headed credit begging outside!”