Champions. The cartoon of 07/04/2024 in CTXT
Which countries sell the most arms to Israel?
United States, Germany and Italy are the three countries that sell the most arms to Israel.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) and reported by different media, the "champion" by far is USA, with a share of 69% of Israel's arms imports, followed by Germany with 30% and Italy with a modest but not insignificant 0.9%.
Other suppliers of weapons to Israel with which its army continues to murder Palestinian civilians include France, UK, Netherlands, Canada and Australia.
The case of Italy is curious to say the least because the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, assured in January 2024 that his country had suspended all forms of arms shipments to Israel as of 7 October 2023.
In February 2024, Altreconomy demonstrated that Tajani was not telling the truth with ISTAT's own data in hand.
According to this newspaper on 13 March, the Italian government was not being transparent because it continued to export arms to Israel and supply fighter planes to the genocidaires.
This Italian media provided data from the ISTAT, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (National Institute of Statistics) which is the statistical body of the Italian government.
Altreconomia points out that, "in December 2023 alone, at the height of Tel Aviv's bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Italian exports of "arms and ammunition" reached 1.3 million euros. The new Istat data again contradicts the government and sheds an ominous light also on other types of exports related to military aviation".
The media analyses the figures published on 12 March 2024 by ISTAT for the month of December 2023 and points out that this is "an important piece that was still missing and which makes it possible to complete the mosaic of the past year and to draw a balance sheet of Italian exports of "arms and munitions" to Israel. This balance sheet shows that, in 2023, Italy exported "arms and munitions" to Israel for a total value of 13,707,376 Euros, a figure lower than that of 2022, which was 17,938,156 Euros (in both years, imports exceeded exports).
Earlier this month, a Palestinian lawyer, a refugee in Egypt, filed a complaint before the Court of Rome against the Italian government on charges of "violation of fundamental human rights" for supplying arms to Israel;
Be that as it may, it is estimated that in 2022 alone, Europe sold arms to Israel to the tune of 609 million euros, bypassing the restrictions that affect "countries at war
".
What about Spain?
Good, thank you.
The rocket launcher to be manufactured in Cordoba (Spain) with Israeli technology has been tested in Gaza.
The company Elbit Systems, an ally of Escribano and Expal, is the largest military manufacturer in Israel with a long history linked to war operations in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories. Source.
