The Minister of Trade, Bolat, responded to the allegations! We have halted exports and imports with Israel.

The Minister of Trade, Ömer Bolat, addressed the issue of exports to Israel, which has come back to the agenda in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM). Bolat stated that Turkey's trade has decreased by 34% due to the massacres that Israel started in Gaza on October 7: "We stopped exports to Israel on April 9. Three weeks later, we completely halted both exports and imports."

"PALESTINE HAS NO CUSTOMS GATE OR SEA PORT"

"There are about 2 million Palestinian Arabs who are Israeli citizens. Additionally, in the area we see as the State of Palestine, the Palestinian Government, a total of 6 million people live in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Their economic and commercial life, labor, and agriculture continue. Unfortunately, Palestine has no customs, police, army, sea port, airport, or customs gate. Palestine is forced to carry out its import and export operations through Israeli ports and customs. The customs duties collected from Palestine's imports are taken by Israeli customs, which takes its commission from it and pays the customs duties to the Palestinian government. This is also the largest source of income for the Palestinian government.

"TRADE WITH PALESTINE APPEARED TO BE TRADE WITH ISRAEL"

"In 2023, the total trade we conducted with Israel was 9.5 billion dollars. Of this, 6.5 billion dollars was our exports to Israel, while the remaining 3 billion dollars appeared to be imports. We must sustain the economy and agriculture in Palestine. Palestine has no customs gate or sea port. The trade we conduct with Palestine also appeared to be trade with Israel."