Israeli employee committees' boycott of Turkey continues
Güncelleme Tarihi:
ISTANBUL – A new survey conducted last week found that 72 percent of Israel’s employee committees’ have decided to continue boycotting Turkey’s vacation spots, following the tensions in diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Ankara, noted in early 2009, reported Danny Sadeh writing for the internet-based news site ynetnews.com.
The poll was conducted by the Veadim Group, which centralizes information regarding the employee committees’ financial activities. The survey was held ahead of Israel's annual tourism fair, scheduled to take place in July.
Employee committees’ are a significant part of the tourism industry, marketing special vacation deals, both in Israel and abroad, to their members.
Among the organizations which will not include Turkey in their travel packages are industry staples the likes of the First International Bank of Israel, El-Al, Egged, the Agricultural Research Organization, ECI, Elektra, Israel Refineries LTD., The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, the Israeli Technological Institute, Haifa Port and the Israel Aerospace Industries, or IAI, to name a few.
Last week saw some 40 tourism executives from Turkey arrive in Israel for a series of meetings with their Israeli counterparts. The meetings were arranged by the Turkish Transportation Ministry and the Turkish Embassy in Israel.
Turkish Ambassador to Israel Namık Tan also took part in the meeting. Ankara's representatives hoped aloud that Israeli tourists would once more flock to Turkish hotspots.
At the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, late January this year, Erdoğan participated in a panel with Israeli President Shimon Peres and dramatically walked out of the session in a move to protest both Peres and the panel’s moderator. Erdoğan’s outburst gained a lot of sympathy among Islamic countries but caused worries in Western countries.
In reaction to Erdoğans remark: “I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. You killed people. And I think that it is very wrong,” Peres had responded: “The tragedy of Gaza is not Israel, it is Hamas, and if rockets were fired into Istanbul you would have reacted the same.”