Arms to Israel: Will countries halt sales in wake of ICC arrest warrants?

Western nations which sell arms to Israel may be forced to re-evaluate their trade agreements after arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in Gaza, experts say.

The warrants came amid Israel’s continuing bombardment and military campaign on the Gaza Strip, where more than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, according to health officials.

All 124 countries which are signatories to the Rome Statute of the ICC are now legally obliged to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they set foot on their territory.

The question of whether countries supplying arms to a country whose leaders are accused of crimes against humanity could be considered complicit is unclear, but experts say some suppliers will have to consider carefully if they wish to continue to support Israel in its war on Gaza.

Which countries provide arms to Israel?

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated that between 2019 and 2023, Israel was the 15th largest importer of arms globally.

It said the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Spain export arms to Israel.

A United Nations report published on February 23, 2024 says Canada and Australia have also exported weapons to Israel.

The US

Israel imported 69 percent of its weapons from the US between 2019 and 2023, according to SIPRI. The principle of ensuring that Israel has a “qualitative military edge” was enshrined in US law in 2008.

After October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas-led attack on villages and army outposts in southern Israel, the US further ramped up the transfer of weapons to Israel. Last month, Washington announced it would send its advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system to Israel, along with US soldiers who would operate the system.

On Wednesday, the US Senate voted down an effort led by independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to block a series of planned weapons sales to Israel. Sanders introduced the bill against a $20bn weapons deal which had been approved by the administration of President Joe Biden.

So far, the US, which is not a signatory to the Rome Statute of the ICC, has shown no signs of being prepared to reduce or halt weapons to Israel. “We fundamentally reject the court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. This sentiment was shared by many politicians from both parties in the US.

Germany

SIPRI estimates weapons sent by Germany constitute 30 percent of Israel’s weapon imports, a tenfold rise in 2023 compared with 2022. Germany mostly sends naval equipment to Israel, including frigates and torpedoes.

In March, Nicaragua filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), asking the court to order Germany to immediately stop exporting arms to Israel because “this aid is used or could be used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of the Genocide Convention, international humanitarian law or other peremptory norms of general international law”.

On April 30, the court rejected the request, saying the monetary value of the weapons for which Germany granted export licences had decreased. In June, several Palestinians in Gaza filed requests to an administrative court in Berlin to stop the German government from exporting weapons. These requests were also rejected.

In September, a spokesperson for the German Ministry for Economic Affairs said: “There is no German arms export boycott against Israel.”

The UK

SIPRI data shows that while the UK has not provided Israel with major arms since the 1970s, it has provided components for various systems such as the F-35 combat aircraft.

“No lethal or other military equipment has been provided to Israel by the UK Government since 4 December 2023,” then-Minister of State for the Armed Forces Leo Docherty told Parliament in April 2024.

Official data on export permits in June 2024 showed that 108 licences, for which Israel was listed as a recipient, had been approved since October 7, 2023.

In September this year, the UK suspended 30 licences out of a total of 350. These 30 pertained to weapons that the UK believed were being used in military operations in Gaza.

Which other countries have restricted arms sales over the course of the war?

France

According to data by SIPRI, France did not send weapons to Israel between 2019 and 2023, and the last time it sent weapons was in 1998.

However, France does supply components used to build weapons.

In June, French investigative media website, Disclose, revealed that France had sent electronic equipment for drones suspected of being used to bomb civilians in Gaza.

In October, French President Emmanuel Macron told French media: “I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza.” He added: “France is not delivering any.”

Italy

SIPRI estimates that Italy’s weapons sent to Israel accounted for 0.9 percent of Israel’s weapons imports between 2019 and 2023. Italy mostly sent light helicopters and naval guns.

The Italian government made repeated assurances that Italy had not sent weapons to Israel since the war broke out.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in the Italian Senate in October this year: “The government immediately suspended all new export licences, and all agreements signed after October 7th [2023] were not implemented.”

However, in March this year, Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said despite these assurances, Italy had sent some weapons to Israel.

Crosetto said these were the weapons for which orders were signed before October 7.

Independent Italian media outlet Altreconomia analysed data from statistics agency ISTAT and reported that Italy had sent 2.1 million euros ($2.2m) in arms and munitions to Israel in the last three months of 2023.

Spain

The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation issued a news release in February 2024 saying arms sales to Israel had not been authorised since October 7, 2023.

Euronews reported that Spanish investigative journalists found that in November 2023, munitions worth 987,000 euros ($1.03m), were sent to Israel under a licence approved before October 7, 2023, however.

Canada

In February this year, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Canada would stop all arms shipments to Israel.

However, campaigners claimed that Canada was sending weapons to Israel via the US instead.

In September, Joly said Canada had suspended 30 permits for arms sales to Israel. It is unclear how many permits in total exist.

Joly added that Canada had cancelled a contract with a US company that would sell Quebec-manufactured arms to Israel.

Belgium, Japanese company

Belgium and a Japanese company have also suspended weapons exports to Israel.

How might the ICC arrest warrants affect arms sales to Israel?

By issuing the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, relating to war crimes and crimes against humanity, “the ICC has also made a certain demand on Western countries both in North America and throughout Europe,” Neve Gordon, professor of international law at Queen Mary University of London told Al Jazeera.

“And that has to do with the kind of trade agreements that they have with Israel – first and foremost with the trade relating to arms.”

He added: “If leaders of Israel are charged with crimes against humanity, then this means that the weapons provided by Western nations are being used to commit crimes against humanity.”

The ICC decision could well therefore lead more Western countries to place embargoes on weapons exports to Israel, Eran Shamir-Borer, the director of the Center for National Security and Democracy at the Israel Democracy Institute told Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Shamir-Borer was formerly part of the Israeli military.

Most countries have a memorandum of arms trade which sets out the conditions under which arms can be traded, Gordon said.

In each memorandum, a provision clearly states that the country “cannot send weapons to an entity that uses the weapons to carry out serious violations of international humanitarian law such as the 1949 four Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols”.

He said, so far, many countries had either ignored these provisions or only slightly limited the types of weapons they send.

However, now that the warrants have been issued, those countries could also possibly be considered to be complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“I assume NGOs within the countries will file petitions in the domestic courts to question the legality of continuing to send arms to Israel.

“Even before the ICC decision, Spain and the UK and France limited the weapons they send, but now I think there is a chance that they will have to restrict it further.”