European countries are coming under increasing pressure to stop supplying weapons, even in the face of allegations of genocide before the International Court of Justice and human rights abuses in Gaza and Lebanon.
European countries continue arming Tel Aviv as it expands its attack in the Middle East, in spite of charges of genocide brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and persistent violations of human rights in Gaza.
Following recent strikes by the Israeli army on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) headquarters and critical locations of the peacekeeping force in the country’s south, which resulted in multiple injuries, mounting pressure on Tel Aviv’s allies to stop arms deliveries has only increased.
A comprehensive “arms embargo” is demanded by Amnesty International in response to “severe human rights violations,” as the organization has raised alarm over ongoing European arms shipments to Israel in the midst of strikes on Gaza and Lebanon.
In an interview with Anadolu, Patrick Wilcken, an arms control policy advisor and human rights researcher for Amnesty International, stated that states “should unilaterally impose an embargo on Israel that would include not just weapons and systems that are coming from their states, but stopping participation in supply chains into weapon systems that eventually end up in Israel.”
As signatories to the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty, European nations are prohibited from approving the sale of weapons that might be used in assaults against civilian targets.
Wilcken emphasized the significance of abiding by international legal commitments, such as the Arms Trade Treaty, in order to stop the transfer of weapons to areas of conflict and preserve the fundamental rights of people.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US will supply Israel with the majority of its conventional arms imports between 2019 and 2023, making up 69% of the country’s total arms imports.
Germany is the biggest European armaments exporter to Israel, accounting for over 30% of Israel’s purchases from 2019 to 2023. According to SIPRI, Berlin’s arms sales to Israel reached $356.5 million in 2023; the amount rose after October 7.
The research institute also revealed that in the final quarter of 2023, Italy sold Israel weaponry for $2.2 million.
SIPRI reports that since 2015, Israel has received more than $576 million in arms licenses from the UK.
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, demanded earlier this month that Israel stop receiving armaments.
In the meantime, Pedro Sanchez, the prime minister of Spain, denounced the nation’s attack on UN soldiers and asked the international community to cease sending arms last week.
Disagreement over F-35 fighter aircraft
While Washington sells the completed aircraft to Israel, Danish authorities are facing a legal battle that could compel the country to stop exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to the US.
Western governments are under pressure to stop selling weapons to Israel, which has been using the deadly F-35 fighter jet throughout its savage 12-month-long offensive in Gaza, killing over 42,500 Palestinians, the most of them women and children, and injuring over 100,000 more. This is because legal battles are about to take place.
Over 95% of the people killed or injured by Israeli jet operations in Gaza have been civilians, according to reports, and this tendency has persisted since October 7 of last year.
Due to the involvement of numerous European governments in the F-35 program, concerns have been raised regarding the legitimacy and openness of the global supply chain for the Israeli aircraft that is accountable for the fatalities in Gaza and Lebanon.
“Across the continent, there’s been a lot of opposition and litigation about the F-35 and that is the classic example of having complex supply chains, the pooling of spare parts,” stated Wilcken. He emphasized that states must use due diligence to remove themselves from these supply chains. “They need to make sure that those parts and components and spares are not going into weapon systems that end up in Israel.”
He claims that since every component can be traced, it is easy to determine which nations are a part of the F-35 program and how much of it is being used in the conflict in Gaza.
“States are clearly nervous about this, and I think there are political reasons, given the importance of the F-35 project for states’ alliances with the United States,” Wilcken continued. “We’ve seen this in many countries, including recently in the UK.”
Although Israel is a significant exporter of weaponry, its military in Gaza primarily depends on the F-35 to carry out what analysts refer to as one of the most aggressive and damaging aerial campaigns in recent memory.
covert transactions
Wilcken pointed out that information regarding the locations of actual weapon and part exports is not sufficiently disclosed.
He emphasized that states cannot continue to claim national security as a justification for their lack of openness with reference to “secret illicit trade.”
Wilcken continued, “geopolitical considerations and alliances, particularly between Europe and the US, have made it more difficult for countries to disengage from this trade, despite immense pressure from civil society and litigants to halt arms shipments to Israel.”
“Wealthy stable countries, such as those in Western Europe, have a responsibility to fulfill and must halt the transfer of any weapons to Israel,” he stated.
The entire arms market “is full of secrecy and opacity,” according to Ian Overton, executive director of Action on Armed Violence, a conflict research nonprofit with headquarters in London, in an interview with Anadolu.
He clarified, pointing out that the F-35 fighter plane was partially built for the Israeli military and that the UK government had not outlawed any of its component parts.
“What we don’t know is that a weapon system’s component parts might end up in France, Germany, or the US once they leave the UK.
“We are uncertain about the timing and manner in which it could be reincorporated into an additional weapon system, which would subsequently be sold to Israel,” he stated.
Although the UK, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and the Netherlands have said that they will no longer be selling weaponry to Israel, Overton thinks that some of these nations are still selling weapons.
“I don’t think it’s easy to hold an opinion that you can both arm Israel and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza without being accused of hypocrisy or some sort of illogic,” Overton stated.
