Increase in Trade with Islamic Countries with Israel
Increase in Trade with Islamic Countries with Israel
Despite requests from Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia, and other countries for the European Union to reconsider its trade relations with Israel due to the ongoing aggression against Palestinians in Gaza, Israel’s foreign trade data for the first nine months of this year indicates a growth in trade between the occupying government and Arab countries, as well as 14 other member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. This contrasts with public calls to boycott products from countries supporting Israel.
It is, of course, very important to boycott Israeli products because the imports of the 19 countries mentioned in the Israeli data were valued at $23 billion.
Major parties in Ireland have called for a ban on imports of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements. Ireland is one of Israel’s main trading partners, ranking eighth on this list.
We have not heard any similar calls from parties regarding the expansion of trade between Egypt and Israel during the Gaza war and the supply of vegetables and fruits to offset the impacts on Israeli agriculture due to a shortage of workers. Egypt also exports cement to Israel to compensate for Turkey’s cement shortage.
The Ankara government halted exports and imports of goods to and from Israel after the results of the municipal elections in May, where the ruling party’s vote share decreased.
This meant that between June and September, there were no exports or imports to or from Israel in Turkey’s foreign trade data for the first nine months of this year. As a result, Turkey’s exports to Israel fell by 65% and imports by 55% during this period.
This was confirmed by Israeli data for the same nine months, showing a 32% decrease in the value of Israeli exports to Turkey and a 15% decrease in imports from Turkey.
Turkey’s rank among Israel’s target export countries fell from tenth last year to seventeenth in the past nine months, and Turkey’s position in imports from Israel dropped from fifth last year to thirteenth.
The country’s position in the overall Israeli trade list dropped from fifth last year to fifteenth this year, while Turkey achieved a trade surplus in the data released by both sides.
Israel’s trade data included five Arab countries: the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Bahrain, showing that the value of trade with Bahrain increased 15 times, Morocco 53%, Egypt 52%, and the UAE 4%, with the total value of Israel’s trade with these five countries rising to $34 billion, a 12% growth.
Israeli data also included the country’s trade activities with 14 other member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), showing an 11% increase in trade value with these countries, excluding Turkey. Trade with Albania increased fivefold, Uzbekistan 65%, Nigeria 45%, Azerbaijan 34%, and Indonesia 25%, while trade with Malaysia, Cameroon, Senegal, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Gabon, Ivory Coast, and Uganda decreased.
This situation helped alleviate the crisis in Israel’s foreign trade statistics.
Israel’s exports in the first nine months of this year decreased by 6% compared to the same period last year, and its imports also fell by 5%. Meanwhile, the value of Israel’s trade with 19 Arab and Islamic countries reached approximately $7 billion over nine months, accounting for 10% of Israel’s total trade with the world during those months. The share of Arab and Islamic countries is actually higher because the announced data does not include trade with other 57 OIC member countries.
There are also significant differences between trade statistics based on Israeli data, which are lower, and data from Arab countries, which are higher, with the trade value announced by the Egyptian side being much higher than what Israeli data indicated for trade between the two sides.
While the published data from the Egyptian side covers foreign trade amounts up to July, trade with Israel in the first seven months of this year reached nearly $19 billion, including $155 million in exports and over $17 billion in imports.
This caused Israel to rank ninth on the list of goods suppliers to Egypt, while total trade between the two countries based on Israeli data for the same seven months was only $431 million, including $242 million in exports to Egypt and $189 million in imports from that country.
Data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in Cairo showed details of goods exchanged between the two countries during those seven months.
Televisions worth $30 million, cement $29 million, chemical fertilizers $165 million, fruits and vegetables $12 million, polyethylene powders $6 million, orange juice $4 million, clothing $3 million, and aluminum rods $2 million were Egyptian exports to Israel. Other exported items included paper packaging, pants, glass panels, floor coverings, aromatic plants, and hookah tobacco.
Egypt’s imports from Israel during those nine months reached $1.728 billion, with natural gas comprising 96% of this amount, valued at $1.664 billion. The rest included $31 million for diesel fuel and $19 million for fabric.
