Germany has sharply reduced arms exports to Israel in recent months, in a move that Olaf Scholz’s government says does not constitute a suspension of the accords or even a boycott. Berlin is facing mounting pressure from court cases arguing that German arms exports to Israel violate humanitarian law.
Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, has categorically denied a Reuters report that the government has suspended issuing licenses. “There is no German boycott of arms exports to Israel,” he said in a statement after the exclusive was published on Wednesday evening. The figures, however, clearly indicate that permits are not being granted.
The German government has not issued export licences for weapons of war to Israel since March, according to the responses provided by the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Change, which is responsible for authorising the export of these goods, to questions from Bundestag member Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the left-wing populist party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).
From the beginning of the year until August 21, the government issued licenses to sell weapons of war worth 14.5 million euros, but only 32,449 euros of these correspond to “weapons of war” – the rest fall into the category of “other military material” – and the permits date back to January and February, according to data consulted by the DPA agency.
The figures are in stark contrast to those for 2023. Last year, Berlin approved export licences to the Jewish state worth 330 million euros. The two main suppliers of arms to Israel are, by far, the United States and Germany. Washington gives Israel around 3.1 billion euros in military aid every year, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
“Weapons of war” are materials explicitly intended for war, i.e. rifles, missiles, warships, bombs or ammunition. The category of “other military material” includes helmets, protective vests and troop transport vehicles, for example. The data from the Ministry of Economy, which has not responded to Morning Express’s requests for confirmation, comes from responses to questions from the BSW deputy.
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Support for Israel
In Germany, Israel’s security is a matter of state. The historical responsibility for the Holocaust has led successive German governments to unwaveringly support the Israeli government. However, over the months, the coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals has come under increasing pressure to maintain a balance between military aid to Israel in the form of arms exports and zeal to prevent human rights violations. More and more voices are calling for the shipments to be stopped.
After Berlin stopped issuing licences for arms shipments to the Jewish state, the issue is likely to rekindle political debate as it has in other countries. German media say the issue has caused friction within the government, with the Foreign Ministry maintaining its support for Israel while the Green-controlled Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs are increasingly critical of Netanyahu’s government.
The United Kingdom recently became the first major Western ally of Israel to suspend, albeit partially, arms sales to the Middle Eastern nation. The decision, announced by Foreign Minister David Lammy in Parliament, involves the suspension of 30 of the 350 export licences currently granted. The suspension therefore affects less than 10% of permits and will have few practical consequences, but will have great symbolic weight, as it is interpreted as a diplomatic blow to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The pressure on Berlin has been mounting over the months. In April, the Nicaraguan dictatorship accused Germany before the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) of “complicity in genocide” in Gaza. The government defended itself by arguing that 98% of the exports approved since the Hamas attack on Israel were not weapons of war. The urgent request was rejected. Since then, several NGOs have filed lawsuits against the German government in an attempt to have the courts stop the shipments.
Germany exported 10 times more weapons to Israel in 2023 than the previous year, with most of the operations approved in the midst of the war. Berlin exported 3,000 portable anti-tank systems and half a million rounds of ammunition for machine guns, submachine guns and other firearms. Sipri data shows that Israel also received two corvettes from Germany in 2023 and dozens of engines for Merkava tanks, a structural part of ground operations in the Strip.
The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), an independent human rights organisation, is pursuing several lawsuits in German courts to prevent Berlin from sending more weapons to Israel. Last May, on behalf of five Palestinian plaintiffs, they requested interim measures to ban further export licences for weapons, in particular 120-millimetre tank ammunition, as well as other types of ammunition and small arms that have been used in Gaza since 7 October 2023.
“We are calling for urgent legal protection for the plaintiffs, all of whom are currently in the besieged city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and are therefore in grave danger,” the organisation said. “We are also demanding greater transparency from the German government regarding its licensing procedures for arms exports. Only in this way will the plaintiffs be able to seek interim measures from the courts and safeguard their rights,” it added.