Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The only Middle Eastern country that has taken significant political and administrative actions to protest Israeli war crimes is Turkey. President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the assassination of Hamas Politburo head Ismail Haniyeh at “X,” writing, “I vehemently denounce and anathematize (lanetliyorum) the perfidious assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Hamas Political Bureau, in Tehran. This killing is a vile deed intended to derail the Palestinian Cause, undermine the glorious resistance (şanlı direnişini) in Gaza, and the righteous struggle (haklı mücadelesini) of our Palestinian siblings, undermining their morale and instilling fear among them.” Erdogan called Haniyeh his “dear brother.”
Although Israel has called for Turkey’s expulsion from NATO, the latter is far too valuable to the alliance for that to happen. Ankara’s utility was again shown Thursday when Erdogan helped successfully broker the release of American prisoners and dissidents by Russia.
In fact, it is the other way around. Tuvan Gumrukcu at Reuters got the scoop that since last October Turkey has blocked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from cooperating in any way with the Israeli war on Gaza. Israel is not a NATO member and despite its close military and intelligence ties with many European countries and with the US and Canada, it is voiceless when it comes to a strong stance by a NATO member like Turkey. Gumrukcu says “Turkey had vetoed all NATO engagement with Israel since October, including joint meetings and exercises . . .” on the grounds that Israel’s war on civilians and civilian infrastructure directly violated NATO principles.
NATO rules of engagement state that “NATO recognizes that all feasible measures must be taken to avoid, minimize and mitigate harm to civilians. When planning and implementing such measures, NATO should give consideration to those groups most vulnerable to violence within the local context. NATO recognizes that, in general, children constitute a particularly vulnerable group during conflict and women are often disproportionately affected by violence.” You couldn’t honestly say Israel is abiding by these principles. In fact, you might be forced to conclude that it is starkly violating them every day in Gaza.
Erdogan also instituted an economic boycott of Israel on April 9, as an Indian think tank puts it, placing export restrictions “on 54 product groups. The restrictions covered various materials, including raw iron bars, aluminium, copper products, concrete, cement, iron steel, electrical and fibre optic cables, granite, construction materials, marble and jet fuel.” Israel does not, for instance, make much cement of its own, so this boycott hurt. Israel and Turkey used to do $7 billion a year in bilateral trade, and the loss of Turkish products has contributed to skyrocketing inflation in Israel and supply chain disruptions. Under World Trade Organization rules, countries may institute boycotts over wars, so Turkey is within its rights. Israel’s government has contemplated a counter-boycott on Turkey, but some Israeli analysts worry that the WTO could sanction Tel Aviv over the step, since there are no legitimate grounds for it in the WTO charter.
Turkish Air used to be a significant carrier for Israel, but it won’t fly there any more. Israelis traveled to Turkey for tourism in large numbers, but that is now being discouraged by Israeli politicians.
The worst effects of the Turkish boycott, moreover, have yet to be felt, since Erdogan gave companies a three-month buffer in which to wrap up their contractual obligations to Israeli firms.
Some 46,000 Israeli businesses have shut down since October 7 because of the Gaza War, and the toll of shuttered companies in 2024 may amount to 60,000.
All that may be annoying, but Erdogan recently threatened a direct intervention against Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians: “Just as we intervened in Karabakh, just as we intervened in Libya, we will do the same to them.”
Turkish troops were sent to Libya in 2020 and are still there, in support of the internationally-recognized government in Tripoli. They prevented the complete takeover of the country by the Bengazi-based Haftar government backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO, with some 425,000 soldiers.
Other than these (probably groundless) threats and minor inconveniences from Turkey, Israel has been able to pursue its total war on the Palestinian civilians of Gaza with almost complete impunity, given that it is backed to the hilt by the United States, a silent partner in the genocide. The some five hundred 2,000-pound bombs that the Israeli Air Force dropped on residential complexes in the first three months of the war, sometimes in the absence of any obvious military target (according to the UN Human Rights Council), all came from the US Pentagon. The US vetoed three UN Security Council cease-fire demands and called the fourth, from which it abstained, “non-binding,” making a mockery of the UN Charter and international law — and allowing the carnage to continue.
Last week, 45 American doctors who had done volunteer work in Gaza said that at least 92,000 people are dead and that “Virtually every child under the age of five whom we encountered, both inside and outside of the hospital, had both a cough and watery diarrhoea,” and that most mothers are giving birth to underweight babies that they cannot breastfeed because they suffer from malnutrition and dehydration. Some 50,000 babies have been born in Gaza during the war, victims of food and water shortages and repeated displacements even where they are not killed by indiscriminate Israeli fire. The US political establishment is either firmly behind these genocidal actions or declines to do anything practical to obstruct them.
Bonus video added by Informed Comment:
Rome Reports in English: “Erdogan calls on Francis to pressure Israel’s allies to halt attacks”
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