The Delàs Centre condemns the international support of the Israeli model of military violence

More than nine billion euros. That is the amount of money that the European Union (EU) member states invested in defense material exports to Israel in 2020. This violates the eight Criteria of Common Position 2008/944/CFSP, the legislation which defines common rules governing the control of exports of military technology and equipment.

These transactions essentially aim to establish a specific type of trade and cooperation relationships in the international defense and security sectors, as well as to allow the Israeli industry to enter the European production and aid fields of different arms companies.

This information is given by the report ‘Combat proven business. Exporting the ‘Israel Brand’ to Maintain the Occupation and Normalise Injustice’ developed by the Delàs’ Centre researchers Alejandro Pozo Marín and Ainhoa Ruiz Benedicto.

The main purpose of the study is to analyse the 'made in Israel' brand and its global expansion, as well as the commercialisation of combat-tested military material. “It perpetuates both the economic sustainability of the occupation in Palestine and the expansion of the Israeli security model based on walls, fences, and surveillance technologies”.

Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and their respective borders are the territories where weapons are allocated, a situation that provides revenue, power and complicity. Exporting weapons to Israel is a breach of the laws of reducing suffering and instability, violates human rights and prioritises business to security, harmony and justice, as the report states, although it is a normalised, incentivised and even encouraged procedure.

Arms tested on the civilian population

Over the years Palestine, especially the Gaza Strip, has become an ‘Israeli military material test laboratory’: this is what the Israeli authorities are naming it and arms industry companies are spreading the term internationally, according to what researchers Pozo and Ruiz express.

The ‘combat proven’ or ‘field-tested’ brand assigned to military materials and products tested on the territories of Palestin’s civilian population is considered to be an added value characteristic for the international security and defense market, as set out in the report. The fact that these atrocious events are being carried out is only a reason for condemning the production and purchase of military equipment.

As the study points out, Israel’s military industry is one of the most advanced and global defense industries in the world. Exporting large volumes of military material allows the country to increase production, which reduces the costs of maintaining the military occupation and its military relevance as a Middle Eastern power. Its main suppliers are France, Germany and, primarily, the US.

States that have done business with Israel have, in some way, collaborated in the construction of border walls and surveillance and control technologies in different countries, such as Kenya, Morocco, South Korea, Cyprus or Colombia, among others.

A model that attacks and violates human rights

The actions and deals of different EU countries with Israeli military and security companies is a situation that must be reversed. The report emphasises the fact that these transactions facilitate the companies’ access to international markets, it contributes to increasing the systematic violence against the Palestinian population and it promotes the Israeli securitarian model.

The Israeli model: known for the control of people and borders

According to the authors of the report, Israel doesn’t know how to draw a security boundary. The country's borders have walls, as many countries do worldwide, an element with serious consequences for the development of life. Most of them are raised by Israeli companies.

This is just a piece of evidence that Israel is committed to indiscriminate violence, an action that should be condemned and abolished, and not promoted in the way that is being driven through the military, arms and security industry.