'Secrecy and opacity': Arms sales to Israel continue

As Israel widens its offensive in the Middle East, European nations continue supplying arms to Tel Aviv despite accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and ongoing human rights abuses in Gaza.

Mounting pressure on Tel Aviv’s allies to halt arms supplies has only intensified following recent attacks by the Israeli army on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) headquarters and key positions of the peacekeeping force in the south of the country, injuring several.

Amnesty International has expressed concern over continued European arms sales to Israel amid attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, calling for a complete “arms embargo” due to “severe human rights violations.”

“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,” said Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International arms control policy advisor and human rights researcher, in an interview with Anadolu.

European countries are part of the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty, which prohibits them from authorising the transfer of arms that could be used in attacks against civilian targets.

Wilcken emphasised the importance of adhering to international legal obligations, including the Arms Trade Treaty, to prevent arms transfers to conflict zones and uphold human rights principles.

The US is the largest supplier of arms to Israel, accounting for 69 percent of major conventional arms imports between 2019 and 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Germany is Israel's largest European arms supplier, providing approximately 30 percent of Israel's imports between 2019 and 2023. SIPRI reported that in 2023, Berlin’s arms deliveries to Israel increased to $356.5 million, with figures rising after Oct. 7.

The research institute further indicated that Italy sold $2.2 million worth of weapons to Israel in the last quarter of 2023.

Since 2015, the UK has supplied more than $576 million in arms licenses to Israel, according to SIPRI.

Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel.

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also urged the global community last week to stop supplying weapons, condemning the country’s attack on UN troops.

F-35 fighter jets controversy

In Denmark, authorities are fighting a court case that could force the government to halt the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to the US, as Washington sells the finished aircraft to Israel.

As legal battles loom, Western governments are under pressure to halt arms sales of the lethal F-35 fighter jet, which Israeli forces have used during their twelve-month brutal offensive in Gaza, killing over 42,500 Palestinians — mostly women and children — and injuring over 100,000.

When Israeli jets operate in Gaza, over 95 percent of those killed or injured have been to be civilians, according to reports indicating that this trend has continued since Oct. 7 last year.

Many European states are involved in the F-35 program, raising questions about the legality and transparency of the international supply chain for Israeli aircraft responsible for the killings in G aza 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," said Wilcken. States, he stressed, are responsible for excluding themselves from these supply chains through due diligence. "They need to make sure that those parts and components and spares are not going into weapon systems that end up in Israel."

According to him, all parts are traceable, making it possible to identify which countries are involved in the F-35 program and its role in the war on Gaza.

“We've seen in many countries, including recently in the UK, that states are very nervous about this, and I think there's obviously political reasons, because of the importance the centrality of the F-35 project for states' alliances with the United States,” Wilcken added.

Israel is a major weapons exporter, but its military heavily relies on the F-35 in Gaza to conduct what experts label one of the most intense and destructive aerial campaigns in recent history.

Secret deals

Wilcken noted that there is insufficient disclosure about where actual weapons and parts are being exported.

He stressed that states must stop using national security as an excuse for the lack of transparency regarding “secret illicit trade."

Despite immense pressure from civil society and litigants to halt arms shipments to Israel, geopolitical considerations and alliances, particularly between Europe and the US, have made it more difficult for countries to disengage from this trade, Wilcken added.

“Wealthy stable countries, like you find in Western Europe, need to take their obligations seriously and stop all weapons transfers to Israel,” he argued.

Ian Overton, executive director of Action on Armed Violence, a London-based conflict research charity, said in an interview with Anadolu that the entire arms industry “is full of secrecy and opacity.”

The UK government has not banned component parts for the F-35 fighter jet," he explained, noting the aircraft had been developed in part for Israel's military.

“What we don't know is once the component part of a weaponry system leaves the UK, it may go to France or Germany or the United States.

"We don't know when and how it may be then reintegrated into another weaponry system, and that weaponry system then sold to Israel,” he said.

Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and the UK have announced a halt to arms sales to Israel, however, Overton believes that some of these countries continue to export arms.

"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 said.