AP photo.
Türkiye has welcomed a 12-country initiative to restrict trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and called on other governments to take similar steps.
The Foreign Ministry said on Sept. 8 that it supported measures led by Britain, France and Canada aimed at banning trade and business relations with the settlements.
The ministry said Israel’s policies were increasingly undermining the two-state solution and threatening the establishment of a Palestinian state.
It accused Israel of turning settlement expansion into a systematic occupation policy, adding that “settler terrorism has reached the level of ethnic cleansing.”
A firm response to Israel’s occupation activities had become essential to securing a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and achieving lasting peace in the region, the ministry said.
It called on “all responsible members of the international community” to adopt similar measures.
Türkiye would continue working toward the establishment of an independent, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, it added.
Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Britain issued a joint statement confirming plans to introduce national restrictions, support European Union measures or consider other action against trade in goods from Israeli settlements.
Britain, France and Canada said they would introduce national bans on settlement goods.
Britain also announced plans to target individuals and companies that support, facilitate or profit from settlement activity.
Presidential Communications Director Burhanettin Duran said the initiative showed that violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories would not go unanswered.
He urged the international community to take further concrete action against Israeli policies in the West Bank and show the same resolve over the destruction and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel responded to the British measures by announcing that it would close Britain’s consulate in Jerusalem and bar British officials from participating in a U.S.-led Gaza coordination mission.
