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Tag: arms exports

  • Lawyers Sue Germany in Bid to Block Arms Exports to Israel

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    Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    A woman protests the German government’s arms exports to Israel during a December 28, 2023 protest in Berlin. 
    (Photo: Maryam Majd/Getty Images)

    “There is reason to believe that these weapons are being used to commit grave violations of international law, such as the crime of genocide and war crimes.”

    The Berlin-based Lawyers’ Collective on Friday sued the German government in an effort to stop weapons transfers to Israel, whose government and military are waging a genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

    According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Germany is the second-largest arms exporter to Israel, providing 30% of its imported weaponry from 2019-23. The top exporter, the United States, provided 69% of Israel’s imported armaments during that same period.

    “As there is reason to believe that these weapons are being used to commit grave violations of international law, such as the crime of genocide and war crimes, the applicants are hereby demanding that the German government protect their right to life,” groups supporting the lawsuit—including the European Legal Support Center, Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, Law for Palestine, and Forensis—said in a statement.

    Ahmed Abed, an attorney in the case who is representing Palestinian families, said during a Friday press conference in Berlin that “Germany has a constitutional responsibility to protect human life.”

    “The German government must stop its arms exports to Israel, as they are in violation of international law,” he added. “The government cannot claim that it is not aware of this.”

    According to the Lawyers’ Collective:

    In 2023, the German government issued arms exports licenses to Israel worth €326.5 million, the majority of which were approved after October 7, 2023, a tenfold increase compared to 2022. The German government is currently supporting the Israeli army by approving the supply of 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons, 500,000 rounds of ammunition for machine guns, submachine guns, or other fully or semi-automatic firearms, as well as other military equipment, while in early 2024 Germany was preparing the authorization of 10,000 rounds of 120mm tank ammunition…

    The arms deliveries and support provided by the Federal Government to Israel violate the Federal Republic’s obligations under the War Weapons Control Act. The criteria for the approval of arms exports include, among other things, that the weapons are not used against Germany’s obligations to international law.

    The groups said that since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found in January that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza, they believe that “the delivery of weapons is contrary to these obligations.”

    In February, lawyers from some of the same groups involved in the new lawsuit sued senior German officials, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, for “aiding and abetting” Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    Last month, Nicaragua filed an ICJ lawsuit against Germany accusing its government of helping Israel commit genocide against Palestinians.

    In addition to exporting hundreds of millions of euros worth of arms to Israel, Germany also suspended contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in response to unsubstantiated Israeli accusations that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 workers in Gaza were involved in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel. This, as Palestinians starve to death.

    The German government has been intensely criticized for its nearly unconditional support for Israel and for violently cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests. Numerous observers contend that Germany’s actions are driven by historical guilt over the Holocaust, with some critics claiming the German government is weaponizing that guilt in order to demonize Palestinians and their defenders.

    The new lawsuit came as the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday voted 28-6 with 13 abstentions in favor of a resolution demanding that Israel be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The United States and Germany were the two biggest countries to vote against the measure.

    Palestinian and international human rights officials say at least 33,173 Palestinians—most of them women and children—have been killed by Israel’s bombing, invasion, and siege of Gaza since October 7. More than 75,800 others have been wounded, while over 7,000 Gazans are missing and believed dead and buried beneath the rubble of the hundreds of thousands of homes and other structures damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks.

    Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

  • Sadiq Khan calls for immediate halt on British arms exports to Israel

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    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/sadiq-khan-calls-for-immediate-halt-on-british-arms-exports-to-israel/

    Speaking to PoliticsJOE, Khan said that we should be “holding the Israeli government to account” over its actions in Gaza.

    The Mayor of London has called for an immediate halt on British arms exports to Israel.

    Sadiq Khan’s intervention comes after more than three former supreme court justices, including the court’s former president Lady Hale, were among more than 600 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges who warned that the UK government is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel.

    The signatories have warned that the present situation in Gaza is “catastrophic” and that given the international court of justice (ICJ) finding that there is a plausible risk of genocide being committed, the UK is legally obliged to act to prevent it.

    Speaking to PoliticsJOE, Khan said that we should be “holding the Israeli government to account” over its actions in Gaza.

    His comments come after seven international aid workers, including three British citizens, were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Monday. John Chapman, 57, James Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, were among the seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers killed in Monday’s strike.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/sadiq-khan-calls-for-immediate-halt-on-british-arms-exports-to-israel/

  • Israel using famine as ‘a weapon of war,’ UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warns

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    Many articles from the Morning Star featured today. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israel-using-famine-as-a-weapon-of-war-un-high%20-for-human-rights-warns

    Parachutes drop supplies into the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, March 28, 2024

    ‘Arms exports must cease, the occupation and settlement policy must end,’ former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says

    THERE is “nothing natural” about the famine in Gaza and Western pressure on Israel through a total arms embargo is urgent, left MPs and campaigners said today.

    They spoke out as the UN’s top human rights official said Tel Aviv could be using starvation as “a weapon of war” in the overcrowded territory as its invasion enters its fifth month.

    UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told the BBC that if the intent to do this was proven it would amount to a war crime.

    Mr Turk condemned the Hamas attack of October 7, during which 1,139 people were killed and about 250 others were taken hostage. But he also said that no side in the war should evade accountability for its actions, including for any attempt to withhold aid supplies from the people who need it in Gaza.

    He told the BBC: “All of my humanitarian colleagues keep telling us that there is a lot of red tape. There are obstacles. There are hindrances. Israel is to blame in a significant way.”

    “When you put all kinds of requirements on the table that are unreasonable in an emergency that brings up the question, with all the restrictions that we currently see, whether there is a plausible claim to be made that starvation is, or may be used as, a weapon of war.”

    …

    Many articles from the Morning Star featured today. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israel-using-famine-as-a-weapon-of-war-un-high%20-for-human-rights-warns

  • Complicit in genocide: where Israel gets its weapons from

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    Many articles from the Morning Star featured today. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/complicit-genocide-where-israel-gets-its-weapons

    Far from ‘standing alone’ Israel is fully supplied with military hardware from various Western and non-Western countries, writes RAMZY BAROUD

    …

    Though many of Israel’s traditional allies in the West are openly disowning its behaviour in Gaza, weapons from various Western and non-Western countries continue to flow, feeding the war machine as it, in turn, continues to harvest more Palestinian lives.

    This compels the question: does Israel truly stand alone when its airports and seaports are busier than ever receiving massive shipments of weapons coming from all directions? Not in the least.

    Almost every time a Western country announces that it has suspended arms exports to Israel, a news headline appears shortly afterwards, indicating the opposite. Indeed, this has happened repeatedly.

    Last year, Rome had declared that it was blocking all arms sales to Israel, giving false hope that some Western countries were finally experiencing some kind of moral awakening.

    Alas, on March 14, Reuters quoted the Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto as saying that shipments of weapons to Israel are continuing, based on the flimsy logic that previously signed deals would have to be “honoured.”

    Another country that is also “honouring” its previous commitments is Canada, which announced on May 19, following a parliamentary motion, that it had suspended arms exports.

    The celebration among those advocating an end to the genocide in Gaza were just getting started when, a day later, Ottawa practically reversed the decision by announcing that it, too, will honour previous commitments.

    This illustrates that some Western countries, which continue to impart their unsolicited wisdom about human rights, women’s rights and democracy on the rest of the world, have no genuine respect for any of these values.

    Canada and Italy are not the largest military supporters of Israel. The US and Germany are.

    …

    Many articles from the Morning Star featured today. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/complicit-genocide-where-israel-gets-its-weapons

  • Activists occupy government department to demand halt on Israel arms exports

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    Many articles from the Morning Star featured today. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/activists-occupy-government-department-demand-halt-israel-arms

    London for a Free Palestine activists outside the Department of Business and Trade Photo: Guy Smallman

    ACTIVISTS from London for a Free Palestine occupied the Department of Business and Trade today, [yesterday] demanding that the British government stop arming Israel.

    The campaigners took over the lobby in the Old Admiralty Building, chanting: “British government you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”

    One protester, Maria, said: “We are going here today because the Department for Business and Trade is where the licences for British arms exports to Israel are signed and approved.

    “The UK has been giving Israel diplomatic, military and economic support, which has enabled it to carry out and continue its genocide and long-term colonisation of Palestine.”

    Another participant, Cynthia Allett, said: “This department arms genocide.

    “As Israel prepares a ground invasion in Rafah, we won’t allow the weapons used to slaughter more Palestinian people to be supplied in our names and funded by our taxes.”

    …

    Many articles from the Morning Star featured today. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/activists-occupy-government-department-demand-halt-israel-arms