Significant increase in German arms exports to Israel

– International news – Tasnim News Agency, the German newspaper Tagus Zeitung wrote in an article: It is well known that Germany is a close partner of Israel. What is less well known is how extensive the military cooperation between the two is. On Friday, this institution revealed the results of its research to the public. The results of this survey show that Germany is the second supplier of arms to the Zionist regime. According to this, last year, the Federal Republic of Germany was responsible for 47% of the total arms imports of the Zionist regime, after the United States with 53%. was located These statistics are obtained from the data of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). This figure includes the delivery of two Sa’ar class 6 warships as well as rocket engines and tanks to this regime. Over a longer five-year period — between 2019 and 2023 — deliveries from Germany accounted for 30 percent of the regime’s total arms imports, compared to 69 percent from the United States. The results of this investigation show that at least some of these weapons are used in Gaza.

Dimitra Andritsu, an employee and architect of Forensis, said on Friday: Israel has its own weapons industry, but Import is dependent. In their report, Forensis researchers used publicly available sources on past and current export licenses and deliveries of arms and military equipment from Germany to Israel. Since the data on arms exports is often incomplete and the German arms export report for 2023 has not yet been published, this is an approximation.

However, it is clear that Germany is one of the most important suppliers. Foreign weapons are for the Israeli army, and this German arms export has generally been approved in recent years without restrictions, despite Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories and several controversial military strikes by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

Accordingly, in the last five years alone, From 2019 to 2023, Germany has approved military equipment exports to Israel worth more than 1.1 billion euros, almost half of which includes military weapons. The figures for the actual export of weapons of war during this period have been withheld by the federal government in the relevant reports, so they are an estimate.

Accordingly, in 2023, the total value of confirmed arms exports to this regime It increased sharply to 326.5 million euros, which was about ten times more than in 2022. Most of these exports were approved in the second half of 2023, mainly since the storming of al-Aqsa by the Hamas resistance movement to Israel. According to the researchers of this study, if you exclude approvals for large warships – submarines and ships – the German federal government approved more arms exports to the regime in 2023 than at any time in the last twenty years.

Last November, the Financial Times reported that the German government has formed a working group between the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Export Control Authority to speed up the processing of Israeli arms requests.

According to this report, although As the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has steadily worsened for months and Israel’s conduct in the war has come under increasing criticism, the German federal government has continued to authorize the export of military equipment and weapons to Israel. It is not yet possible to definitively assess whether the range of approvals in the first few months of this year will be at the same level as the end of 2023.

Accordingly, German weapons are also used in Gaza. . As an example of this, Forensis researcher Dimitra Andritsu on Friday pointed to Matador-branded rocket-propelled grenades manufactured by Dynamit Nobel Defense in Burbach, North Rhine-Westphalia. German SAR ships from Kiel, in turn, are being used to maintain a naval blockade of Gaza and fire missiles at targets in the devastating war on land, as shown in Israeli military images.

Another example is German-made diesel engines, which are used in Israeli Merkava 4 tanks. These are also used in Gaza.

Berlin lawyers have now submitted an urgent request to the Berlin administrative court to stop German arms exports to the occupying regime. Ahmad Abed, a Berlin lawyer, said in a speech on Friday, it is enough to assume that these weapons are used to violate international laws. The nine-person legal group to which he belongs refers to the Arms Control Act in this regard.

These lawyers believe that by handing over its weapons, Germany violates international agreements such as the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). ) 2013 and violates the Geneva Convention as well as the conditions that the International Court of Justice imposed in February to prevent possible genocide in the Gaza Strip. It offers little for successful legal action against gun sales. The structure of assistance that Berlin lawyers have chosen is that they seek assistance on behalf of a person who is in Rafah. Lawyer Ahmad Abed, who is in charge of their representation, says that they all fled from their homes and are afraid of starvation or death in the Rafah attack. They did not want to be named “to protect themselves,” he said.

The lawyers feel inspired by a Dutch court ruling in February that the Netherlands must freeze its arms exports to Israel. to stop, otherwise this country will potentially be complicit in violating international law. This ruling was about the spare parts of fighter planes. On Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council called for a halt to arms deliveries to Israel. Germany and the United States of America and four other countries voted against this non-binding resolution. 28 countries including EU countries Belgium, Finland and Luxembourg voted in favor. France and the Netherlands abstained.

From Monday, Germany will also have to defend itself before the International Court of Justice. Nicaragua has accused the Federal Republic of Germany of “aiding and abetting genocide” because it supported the Zionist regime and suspended payments to the UN aid agency UNRWA for its activities in Gaza.

The decline of Israel is certain with the blood of martyrs