An official statement and a source that identified the two businesses said that Turkey’s parliament had banned Coca-Cola and Nestle goods from its eateries on Tuesday due to their purported support for Israel during the Gaza conflict.
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey declared, “The products of companies that support Israel will not be sold in restaurants, cafeterias, and tea houses in the parliament campus,” although it did not name the businesses.
The statement further stated that Speaker Numan Kurtulmus took the decision to “support public sensitivity regarding boycotting products of companies who have openly declared their support for Israel’s war crimes (and) killing of innocent people in Gaza”.
The only trademarks taken off menus, according to a parliamentary source, were Coca-Cola drinks and Nestle instant coffee. The source claimed the decision was made in response to the “huge public outcry against these companies” for their support of Israel.
The source and the parliament statement didn’t say how Coca-Cola and Nestle backed Israel’s military effort.
Nestle was the first major consumer goods company to declare a reaction to the conflict when it said last month that it was temporarily closing one of its production facilities in Israel as a “precaution”. Recent social media posts by Turkish activists calling for boycotts of Israeli products and Western businesses they believe support Israel have included both corporations.
With regard to the month-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the Turkish parliament’s action is among the first by a government or significant organisation to specifically target large international companies.
In other cases, Belgian transport unions refused to handle military hardware being shipped to Israel, and the Barcelona port stevedores’ union refused to load and unload any military hardware during the Gaza War.
President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and his administration have been harshly critical of Israel’s attack on Gaza and the West’s backing of Jerusalem throughout the last month.
Since Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took 240 captives during an assault on southern Israel one month ago, Israel has been bombarding Gaza. Over 10,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s attack, including over 4,100, according to Gaza health officials.
