Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be exporting terrorists to Israel while blocking imports from the Jewish State.
Earlier this week Turkish exports to Israel — specifically to the ports of Haifa and Ashdod — were banned by the Ankara government, while Israeli goods arriving at Turkish ports are no longer allowed to unload their cargoes.
An unofficial ban on exports from Turkey to Israel was initiated by the Erdogan government as early as April 1, however, with the Turkish computerized system for export customs showing an error message saying “unable to proceed with the declaration only for exports to Israel.”
All imports and exports were officially halted on Thursday by Turkey, although Erdogan cunningly refrained from making any official announcement of the policy.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed the move, which appears simply to be one more in a parade of Turkish government actions designed to aid Hamas in its war on the Jewish State.
Katz wrote in a post on the X social media platform Thursday that Erdogan “is breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports. This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements. I have instructed the Director General of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs to immediately engage with all relevant parties in the government to create alternatives for trade with Turkey, focusing on local production and imports from other countries.
“Israel will emerge with a strong and daring economy,” Katz added. “We Win and They Lose.”
The only export to arrive in Israel from Turkey in recent days has been a terrorist who attacked an Israeli police officer in Jerusalem.
This past Tuesday, Turkish national Hassan Skalanan carried out a terrorist attack near the Flower Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. The attacker stabbed an Israel Border Guard Police officer before he was eliminated by other officers.
According to a report by the Hebrew-language HaKol Yehudi news outlet, Skalanan was in Israel as part of an official delegation of the Directorate for Religious Affairs in Turkey – the Turkish Ministry of Religion – for which he worked as an imam in a mosque, according to Turkish sources.
The head of the Turkish Ministry of Religion is headed by Dr. Ali Arbas, the country’s Minister of Religion, who at the start of the current war with Hamas, published a call to boycott companies that support “the Zionists” and incited against the State of Israel.
Despite this, Israel has allowed Turkey’s Ministry of Religion to send tours to Jerusalem that at the same time are tasked with establishing a Turkish presence on the Temple Mount, in the Old City, at the Tomb of Samuel the Prophet and other sensitive areas.
A number of Turkish organizations are operating in Jerusalem and own properties in the Old City as well.
