Angelo Stefanini
Last February a Dutch appeals court ordered the Netherlands to stop exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel because “there are many indications that Israel has violated the humanitarian law of war, citing as examples the numerous civilian victims, including thousands of children; the destruction of 60% of civilian homes and extensive damage to hospitals, water and food supplies, schools and religious buildings; widespread severe hunger; and the displacement of 85% of Palestinians in Gaza.”
The volume is out “The chain of impunity. Investigation into the history of Israeli armaments and the complicity of the West and Italy in the war waged against the civilian population in Palestine”[1]second BDS Italia dossier[2] on Israel’s weapons and wars and on the responsibilities of Italy and the Western world in making possible the military occupation of Palestine and the progressive expulsion of its inhabitants. Already in the first dossier,[3] released in 2020, the three main reasons that largely justify the request for a military embargo against Israel were addressed and discussed. First, Israel practices apartheid against the Palestinian people in an almost scientific manner due to its military strength and technology. This crime is accompanied by continuous and constant ethnic cleansing that has lasted for over a hundred years in order to create a “pure” Jewish state. A second reason lies in the central role played by Israel in the proliferation of armaments and security systems thanks to its aggressive and sophisticated practices and strategies, applied and tested on the Palestinian population, and precisely by virtue of this it is recognized as a model to imitate. Finally, the Jewish State enjoys complete impunity and the support of the international community, despite its crimes being well documented.[4]
I The tragic events of recent months in Gaza constitute a further element to demonstrate the need for an immediate and total military embargo against Israel. Facts that represent the continuation of a history of wars and massacres carried out by Israel against the Palestinian population which did not begin on 7 October 2023 but has persisted for at least 75 years since the birth of that state, the latest undertaking of dying colonialism, which has raised the conscience of Europeans, responsible for the horrors of the World War and the persecution of minorities. In 1948 there was talk of Nakba, of Catastrophe, with the destruction of 450 Palestinian cities and villages and the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians, refugees in their land, many forcibly transferred to Gaza. Today we are witnessing a new chapter in history, a horrible massacre, the first in live streaming worldwide, but censored by the Italian and Western media, of the population of the Gaza Strip, currently underway.
After the angry armed action of Palestinian resistance groups on 7 October 2023, the brutal Israeli retaliation took on the contours of one of the worst humanitarian and health crises in modern history, with now six months of relentless bombing causing unprecedented levels of suffering across the Gaza Strip. Claiming a non-existent right of defense of the occupier against the occupied, the Israeli government has unleashed a deadly revenge against the Palestinian population, through a campaign of systematic destruction of all social and civil infrastructures. All this is made possible by the support and assistance that the USA, EU and Italy continue to provide to Israel’s “war” against the Palestinian people, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem: massacres of civilians as well as physical and psychological violence that will leave wounds indelible.
Many independent political analysts agree with the judgment that Israel’s gruesome retaliation has a now clear objective: the final solution for the Palestinian people, a second Nakba that forces them to abandon the land where they live, and in many cases where they are already refugees, deleting them.[5]
The International Court of Justice itself in its order of 26 January 2024 found it plausible that Israel’s acts could amount to genocide and issued provisional measures for Israel to take all actions in its power to prevent genocidal acts.[6] Subsequently, on Monday 25 March the United Nations Security Council voted with 14 votes in favour, no vetoes against and the United States abstention, a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza for the remainder of Ramadan.[7] This important decision, Washington’s toughest action so far at the United Nations against its historic ally, now commits the Security Council to respect it. Furthermore, on Thursday 28 March, the International Court of Justice again issued further provisional measures against Israel, ordering it to increase the supply of basic humanitarian goods to the Gaza Strip, due to the worsening living conditions of the Palestinians.[8] It will be interesting to observe Israel’s response to this hardening of American positions and further pressure from the major justice body of the United Nations, given the total indifference always shown towards condemnations from global institutions and the so far only friendly reminders of the powerful ally.
Israel is one of the world‘s largest arms producers and is heavily dependent on exports covering the 70% of its military productionmainly in the Global South and in particular towards rogue and authoritarian regimes that use it to commit genocide, ethnic cleansing and other serious human rights violations.[9] The Israeli defense industry uses attacks against Palestinians to test new weapons and military technology that are then marketed as “field-tested.” Israel causes harm by exporting its repressive tactics and technologies: its exports are used to build walls, promote surveillance, enable racial profiling and racist police repression, and to violate the rights of indigenous peoples, migrants and defenders of human rights.[10]
A recent press release from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights[11] reports the opinion of authoritative United Nations experts which state that “All States must ‘ensure respect for international humanitarian law by parties to armed conflict, as required by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law. Consequentially, the states they must[12] refrain from transferring weapons or ammunition – or parts thereof – if it is foreseeable, given the facts or past patterns of behavior, that they could be used to violate international law”. UN experts welcomed a Dutch appeals court’s February 12, 2024 decision ordering the Netherlands to stop exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel since “there are many indications that Israel has violated the humanitarian law of war in a not insignificant number of cases”, citing as examples “the numerous civilian victims, including thousands of children; the destruction of 60% of civilian homes and extensive damage to hospitals, water and food supplies, schools and religious buildings; widespread severe hunger; and the displacement of 85% of Palestinians in Gaza.”[13]
The experts also noted that states parties to the Arms Trade Treaty have additional obligations to block arms exports if they “know” that they “will” be used to commit international crimes.; or if there is an “overriding risk” that the transferred weapons “could” be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law. The member states of the European Union are also bound[14] by the EU Arms Export Control Law. Yet, Italy itself, among the first partners in military collaboration, still continues to export weapons to Israel in the midst of the ongoing war, despite the denials of our defense ministry.[15]
In this book, developed within the BDS Italia working group on embargo and disarmament, with the support of PeaceLink and the collaboration of the Bridges not Walls Campaign of Pax Christi, some of the leading experts on the Israeli and Italian military reality describe and document the close link and complicity that exist between politics and economic interests linked to armaments: a real chain of impunity which, starting from Israel, reaches up to the European governments and the main research institutes of the old continent. The promoters and authors of this dossier hope that its careful reading will make clear the urgent need for an international military embargo against Israel. As the experts cited by the UNHR High Commissioner stated,[16] “The need for an arms embargo on Israel is accentuated by the International Court of Justice ruling that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and by the continued severe harm civilians continue to suffer.”
It has never been more imperative to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza by ending all military relations with it. Let’s block arms trafficking to and from Israel: IF NOT NOW WHEN?
Angelo Stefanini. Medico, volunteer of the PCRF (Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund), former WHO director in occupied Palestine.
In the cover photo the headquarters of the International Court of Justice in The Hague
References
[1] https://bdsitalia.org/index.php/notizie-embargo/2826-embargo-militare
[2] https://bdsitalia.org/index.php/la-campagna-bds/campagna-bds
[3] https://bdsitalia.org/index.php/risorse-embargo/2614-dossier-embargo-militare
[4] https://www.ipsc.ie/israels-violations-of-international-law-a-brief-introduction
[5] https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide
[6] https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20240226-pre-01-00-en.pdf
[7] https://euractiv.it/section/mondo/news/il-consiglio-di-sicurezza-onu-approva-per-la-prima-volta-una-risoluzione-che-chiede-un-cessate-il-fuoco-a-gaza/
[8] https://www.internazionale.it/ultime-notizie/2024/03/29/israele-palestina-gaza-cig-aiuti
[9] https://www.972mag.com/israel-masked-arms-deals/
[10] https://roarmag.org/essays/exporting-oppression-israels-profitable-arms-industry/
[12] https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciii-1949/article-1/commentary/2020?activeTab=undefined#_Toc42428173
[14] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32008E0944
[15] https://altreconomia.it/litalia-continua-a-esportare-armi-a-israele-il-caso-delle-forniture-per-i-caccia/
7 October 2023, UNHR High Commissioner, BDS Italy, Pax Christi Bridges Not Walls Campaign, West Bank, International Court of Justice, Gaza, Genocide, East Jerusalem, Israel, The chain of impunity, Nakba, Palestine, PeaceLink, Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights