When pragmatism wins the truth… more and more Palestinians are convinced: the agreement between Turkey and “Israel” – a stab in the back
If you put aside emotion and political opportunism, you have to admit that the “Israeli”-Turkish agreement on normalization, signed on June 27, not in favor of the Palestinians in General and Gazans in particular.
The people of Gaza emotionally tired after ten years of siege, complicated by devastating wars and by the absence of a political horizon. In addition to its resistance, undying faith, and legendary durability, the Palestinians of Gaza are pinned the hopes and aspirations of a few friends. And Turkey was one of them.
The relationship was strengthened in may 2010 when Israeli commandos attacked the “Freedom Flotilla” in international waters and killed nine Turkish activists on Board the flagship Mavi Marmara”. The tenth activist later died as a result of injuries. Since then, many Palestinians, as well as the Turks felt that the relations between Palestine and Turkey have entered a new phase, a phase not of words but of action. And if earlier it was more about the sentimental gestures of friendship, now – of blood and tears.
Of course, Turkey is an important component of NATO and American ally in the region – was under tremendous pressure since then, as it lowered the status of diplomatic relations with “Israel” in 2011.
But, alas, the normalization of relations with “Israel” without the lifting of the suffocating blockade of Gaza was not a criterion for Istanbul. No economy, no political stability or national security is not affected by the gap in tel Aviv.
Less known is the fact that the gap wasn’t affected trade between “Israel” and Turkey. “Although the political relationship crashed on the rocks, both understood that the business should continue,” recently acknowledged to the Turkish mass media.
“Business and politics strictly separated. Trade in 2010 did not decrease, but increased by 26%”.
Moreover, in 2013-2014 became the most profitable for the “Turkish airlines” operating in the segment of passenger traffic between Israel and Turkey, and in 2015, the trade balance of both countries rose to 5.6 billion US dollars.
Still, thanks to its principled position on Gaza, Turkey enjoyed great respect in the Muslim Ummah.
Perhaps Istanbul found themselves too exhausted by the war with Syria, increased military violence, economic unpredictability, flow of refugees, the conflict with Russia and political failures of the ruling party. But the Palestinians had nothing to do with it.
And if the President of Turkey felt the necessity of revising the political course as a result of political calculations that it seemed to him reasonable and necessary, then what did the people of Gaza that they have been treated thus?..
“This is a stab in the back,” wrote Haidar Eid, Professor at Gaza. “This is a cheap manipulation of the Palestinian issue,” echoes the journalist Gad Bardawil. Although others are trying to write in a conciliatory discourse, the frustration in Gaza, and, in fact, among most Palestinians, it is impossible not to notice.
Dr. Ahmad Yousef, a former adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, has refused to condemn Turkey for the failure in the lifting of the blockade of Gaza. “Hamas is convinced that the “Israeli”-Turkish agreement of Ankara will achieve all that is possible to ease the blockade of Gaza, which is suffering from economic crisis,” – his position.
This logic is not tenable. Turkey cannot be blamed for the failure of the lifting of the blockade. The siege of this “Israeli”, and its terrible outcome is a moral and legal obligation “Israel”, its regional partners and Western allies.
However, Turkey is obliged, like any other country in the world, not to conduct any business with a government accused of war crimes, apartheid, the systematic violation of international law.
While “Israel” illegally occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem, keeps in the suffocating blockade of the Gaza strip, what moral justification can present the Turkish government has dared to normalize relations with “Israel”?
This agreement deprives the family of the ten martyrs of the Turkish law of criminal prosecution of the Zionist murderers, and thousands of Palestinian families also don’t have such chance.
In other words, the usual business returns in Turkish-“Israeli” relations, while Gazans remain trapped between the walls topped with barbed wire.
Those who try to see the glass as half-full cite the fact that the Gas will get tons of Turkish humanitarian assistance, the hospital for 200 beds and a station for water desalination, which is especially important if to remember that only 3% of all water Sector fit for consumption.
However all deliveries will pass through the “Israeli” port, and it refused to make the activists on the “Mavi Marmara”. This political move only adds “legitimacy” to the occupation and the system of blockade.
What’s worse, the deal, if completed, will lower the status of the crisis in Gaza to humanitarian, although it is not. Gas suffers not from a simple economic embargo that is politically motivated blockade after the democratic elections of 2006 in Palestine, the results of which did not want to recognize “Israel” and its allies.
The people of Gaza the Zionists are being punished for their political choices, for their resistance, for refusal to submit to pressure and blackmail. Neither the hospital nor the desalination plant, no food will not solve any of these problems.
When the “Israeli” commandos captured the “Freedom Flotilla” in may 2010, something important happened in Gaza – it was a deep sense of loss and yet pride. For the first time this generation felt a real solidarity of the Islamic countries, which was manifested in such a determination and willingness to sacrifice.
For years Gazans have lived with the hope that Turkey will support the Palestinians in the blockade until it is lifted.
It didn’t happen. Moreover, “Israel” will extract huge profits as a result of this transaction, for example, will be able to export its gas to Europe via Turkey.
And if the Turkish point of view, it was not only about money, then what? Rethinking foreign policy? A return to the principle of “no problems with our neighbors”? Whatever it is, hope Gaza crashed under the weight of Realpolitik.
The deal was a blow to the hopes of Palestinians for ending the blockade.
Possible, this deal was another call: the Palestinians must rely only on themselves to achieve national unity and then look for solidarity in the world.
However, this unfair deal will not be able to break the fraternal ties between Turkish and Palestinian people. “Blood is thicker than water “, they say. And they are right.
