The Chancellor promised Israel: “We have delivered weapons and we will deliver weapons.” This is now clearly reflected in the arms export statistics.
The federal government is expanding its approvals for arms deliveries to Israel more than previously known. According to the Foreign Office, exports of arms worth 94.05 million euros have been permitted to the country, which is at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, since August alone. That is more than twice as much as the 45.74 million euros that the Ministry of Economic Affairs reported to the Bundestag’s Economic Committee last week for the entire year up to October 13th.
The new number comes from a response from the Foreign Office to a query from BSW MP Sevim Dagdelen, which was submitted to the German Press Agency. The answer leaves open whether the approved exports include military weapons.
Significant reduction in the first months of the year
There has been a dispute over arms deliveries to Israel for months. Last year, the traffic light government approved arms deliveries to Israel for 326.5 million euros, including war weapons for 20.1 million. The majority of the export permits went back to the period after the terrorist attack on Israel by the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas on October 7th. In the first few months of this year, however, export permits were drastically reduced.
Merz accused Ampel of blocking – Scholz countered
As of August 21, only deliveries worth 14.42 million euros had been approved, according to an earlier response to a parliamentary question. The export of military weapons was no longer permitted from the beginning of March until this date. Opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) then accused the federal government of blocking export applications from defense companies, including the delivery of ammunition and spare parts for tanks.
The federal government, on the other hand, always emphasized that there was no ban on arms exports. “We have delivered weapons and we will deliver weapons,” Scholz promised in the Bundestag debate on the anniversary of the attack on October 7th. This is now also reflected in the statistics.
Genocide trial before the international court
The exports of military equipment to Israel are particularly explosive because a lawsuit against them is pending at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The Latin American country of Nicaragua accuses Germany of aiding and abetting genocide and has filed a lawsuit with the court. At the end of April, the judges rejected an urgent application to stop arms exports. However, they did not comply with Germany’s demand to completely reject Nicaragua’s lawsuit. The main proceedings could drag on for years.
According to a recent survey, a clear majority of Germans are against arms deliveries to Israel. In a Forsa survey for the magazine “Stern” published on Tuesday, 60 percent rejected arms exports to Israel. Only 31 percent were in favor, 9 percent were undecided.
Baerbock: Distinguish between weapons of war and other armaments
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned against undifferentiated black and white thinking when it comes to arms exports to Israel. “This is not a contradiction, but rather two sides of the same coin: the right to self-defense in accordance with international humanitarian law,” she said on the sidelines of a support conference for Lebanon in Paris. When exporting to third countries such as Israel, every delivery is checked within the framework of humanitarian, European and international law. “We do that here too.”
In response to a reporter’s question about the numbers, Baerbock said that a distinction must be made between weapons of war and other armaments. The current question relates to other military equipment, the approval of which is also being examined. There is a wide range here, sometimes it involves spare parts or supplier parts. That’s why there are always different numbers, “because it depends on the different armaments at the location.” Baerbock did not provide any details about the figures reported for Israel.
Palestinian Authority protests
The Palestinian Authority protested against the arms deliveries earlier this week. “The arms deliveries to Israel enable the continuation of massive crimes against the defenseless Palestinian people,” said their representative in Germany, Laith Arafeh.
BSW politician Dagdelen called the exports “irresponsible”. “By providing arms aid to Israel, the traffic light government is aiding and abetting war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon instead of taking into account the majority will of the population in Germany for an arms embargo,” she said.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
