Turkey has expanded its restrictions on the export of products in 54 different categories from Israel, the Turkish trade ministry has stated on Tuesday. The ban would continue until a ceasefire is declared in Gaza. The ban call came after Israel had refused Ankara’s request to join other nations in providing airdrops of humanitarian aid to Palestinians to Gaza. Israel has so far not officially explained the reason why it denied Turkey’s request, nor has it reacted to the ban yet.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan had stated in a press conference on Monday. “Today we learned that our request, which was welcomed by the Jordanian authorities, was rejected by Israel.” He added “There can be no excuse for Israel’s prevention of airdropping aid to starving Gaza. In response to this, we have decided to take a series of new measures against Israel.” He had not then specified what those measures were.
The announcement comes after increasing protests in the country’s capital where demonstrators have demanded that Turkey sever ties with Israel.
This banning of products is not limited to Israel. In November last year, the Turkish Parliament had removed the local version of Coca-Cola (KO,N) and Nestle (NESN.S) from its restaurants. This was to protests the US’s backing of Israel in the ongoing conflict against Gaza.
Speaker Numan Kurtulmus who made the decision said it was done to “support public sensitivity regarding boycotting products of companies who have openly declared their support for Israels war crimes (and) killing of innocent people in Gaza.” The Turkish parliament’s move was among the first by a government or major organisation to target big global brands over the month-long war between Israel and Hamas.
Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had urged Muslim nations to boycott Israel by ending oil and food products to the country. “The bombings on Gaza must stop immediately … the path of oil and food exports to the Zionist regime should be stopped,” Khamenei told a group of students in Tehran, according to Iranian state media.
Social media campaigns calling for a boycott against Israeli and US companies that are believed to support Israel have hurt major companies in the Middle East. According to a El Pais report chains such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, Burger King, Coca-Cola, KFC and Pizza Hut admit that the social media boycott campaigns have hurt their bottom lines.
(With inputs from Reuters)
