Eduardo González
Spain has maintained the commercial exchange of arms with Israel since October 7, when the Hamas attacks occurred that provoked the very harsh military response of the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu in the Gaza Strip, according to a report, which reveals that, despite Because no new licenses have been authorized, sales of ammunition have continued and imports of Israeli weapons have exceeded one billion euros.
As revealed by the report 'Business as usual. Analysis of the Spanish arms trade in 2022-23 and arguments for an arms embargo on Israel', prepared by the Center Delàs d'estudis per la Pau (Centre Delas), Spanish arms exports as a whole increased in 2022 by 24 % compared to 2021, the second highest figure in the history of Spanish arms exports, only slightly surpassed in 2017. In addition, the only data made public by the Spanish Government on exports of defense and dual-use material in 2023 show that, only In the first half of 2023, exports have already reached 1,754 million euros.
According to these figures, a region “of high conflict and political tension, as is the case of the Middle East”, was the destination of 23% of Spanish military material exports in 2022, reaching a value of 947.4 million euros. In the first half of 2023 alone they amounted to 334.3 million euros, 19% of total exports for the period.
Regarding the arms trade between Spain and Israel, the report shows that, “despite the extreme seriousness of Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip, military relations between Spain and Israel have essentially been maintained as they were before October 7, 2023.”
According to the Centre Delas, military relations have only been affected with regard to Spanish exports. “The Spanish authorities have assured that no new export licenses for defense material have been granted to Israel since October 7, 2023,” but “exports have continued,” the report states. In November 2023, the company Nammo Palencia (the subsidiary of the Norwegian-Finnish multinational Nammo) exported 987,000 euros in ammunition from Spain to Israel, specifically to the company Elbit Systems, one of the main suppliers to the Israeli Army.
In addition, defense material corresponding to categories 93 (“weapons and ammunition”) and 8710 (“armored combat vehicles and tanks, whether or not armed; parts”) has also been exported to Israel; although, according to the Commerce database, its final destination is the Philippines.
According to the Centre Delas, the authorization of arms exports to Israel is contrary to the legislation on the matter and, therefore, the Spanish Government should deny the granting of new authorizations and revoke, or at least suspend, export authorizations to Israel granted prior to October 7, 2023 and that are still in force, since “it is very likely that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip” and is committing, “without a doubt, crimes against humanity and war crimes.” “Given this particularly serious situation, the Government could adopt an arms embargo on Israel,” he adds.
On the other hand, the study ensures that imports have not been suspended, "as the Secretary of State for Commerce recognized in February." Specifically, since October 7, Spain has not stopped acquiring Israeli weapons directly or, above all, by awarding Israeli companies (and their subsidiaries in Spain) contracts for products and services for the armed forces or security forces. security in Spain. Through this procedure, Spain has acquired Israeli weapons valued at 1,027 million euros since October 7.
Belarra accuses the Government of “hypocrisy”
Following the publication of the report, the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, yesterday accused the Government of “hypocrisy”. “Cheating measures in the electoral campaign and behind them have been awarding contracts worth 1 billion euros since October to Israeli arms companies. Not with my silence,” she declared through the social network X.
For their part, the MPs of Sumar (minority partner in the coalition Government) Enrique Santiago (IU), Engracia Rivera (IU), Tesh Sidi (Más Madrid), Félix Alonso and Gerardo Pisarrello ('Comunes') have asked the Government Based on this report, how many weapons have been exported from Spain to Israel since October 7 and if there are plans to export more in view of the contracts that have been signed.
“The fact that these exports were already authorized before October 7 does not prevent the permit from being revoked, as established by the regulation for the control of trade in defense material,” warns the battery of parliamentary questions, addressed to several Ministries. This regulation, the Sumar MPs add, allows cancellations of contracts when there are “rational indications” that the exported products can “be used in a manner contrary to due respect and the inherent dignity of the human being.”
Last November, Ione Belarra and other Podemos deputies denounced in a written parliamentary question that the Ministry of Defense was finalizing the acquisition of 1,680 Spike LR2 missiles for almost 290 million euros from a subsidiary of the Israeli arms company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
For this reason, they asked the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, if he valued "the suspension of the purchase of weapons material from Israel" and if he considered it "coherent" for the Government to denounce the bombings of the civilian population of Gaza "while collaborating economically with the Israeli military-industrial complex that makes them possible.” Specifically, they recalled some words from Pedro Sánchez during his meeting on November 28 in Jerusalem with Benjamin Netanyahu: “The whole world is shocked by the images we see every day in Gaza. “The number of dead Palestinians is truly unbearable.”
On the other hand, data from DataComex, the foreign trade portal of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, indicated last February that, since October 7, Spain had exported weapons to Israel worth 987,000 euros, specifically “bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles, cartridges and other ammunition and projectiles, and their parts, including slugs, shot and wads for cartridges.” As a result of this information, Sumar's spokesperson and Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, demanded that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cancel "immediately" any license to sell weapons to Israel and that a total embargo be imposed on these exports.
...
