A leading Israeli weapons company is set to open a manufacturing plant in the Philippines for the purpose of producing firearms and ammunition.
Silver Shadow Advanced Security Systems Ltd. (SSASS) was reported by the Philippine News Agency to have signed a memorandum of understanding with Rayo Illuminar Corp. (RIC) to open the factory that would be operational by next year.
The two companies are said to be looking at Limay in the Baatan province as a potential location of the plant.
According to news agency, SSASS “committed to infuse an initial investment of $50 million” and that the Israeli company also committed to train and employ at least 160 personnel.
The two companies are said to have been conducting negotiations prior to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Israel in August, when the letter of intent between the two companies was signed.
Israeli arms companies have been criticized by human rights activists, most notably Elie Yosef, for arming Duterte’s regime and turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed against Muslims, leftists and Filipinos involved in the country’s drug trade.
Since Duterte entered office in 2016, thousands of his citizens have been killed by the security forces as part of what the regime is calling an operation to root out illegal drug use.
Yosef and others concerned with how a Jewish state is meant to behave on the world stage have criticized Israel’s defense ministry and weapons firms for betraying Jewish values through the arming of war criminals like Duterte. The activists have been working to unite lawmakers from across the political spectrum against Israeli companies selling arms to human rights violators.
Israeli arms manufacturers mimicking the inhumane practices of their American counterparts is perhaps one of the most destructive features of westernization in recent decades. But there is also another crucial factor at play. The military aid Israel receives from the United States has been forcing Israeli weapons companies out of the domestic market and into agreements with morally questionable clients.
And it’s about to get worse.
The new ten year economic agreement negotiated between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) and former US President Barack Obama’s administration altered the previous terms of the military aid Israel receives, making Jerusalem even more economically and militarily dependent on Washington than before.
Until now, roughly 25% of the aid, adding up to billions of shekels each year, could be spent on local Israeli products. The fact that three quarters of the money had to be spent on American arms often more expensive and qualitatively inferior to Israeli weapons caused many to cynically view the aid as little more than a US government subsidy to its own military industrial complex.
But according to the new agreement beginning in stages at the start of October, 100% of military aid will have to be spent on American products, resulting in major losses for local defense companies that will essentially lose their own military as a client.
Israel’s defense ministry warned the Knesset finance committee in May that the local arms industry is expected to lose $1.3 billion in revenue each year and as many as 22,000 workers could lose their jobs when the new agreement kicks in at the start of October.
Although Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) demanded the renegotiation of the new aid package with Washington, there is no indication Netanyahu plans to raise the subject with the Americans.
The estimated loss is 4 billion shekels per year in defense purchases, which could lead to the closure of 130 factories, many of which are in the periphery employing workers from Israel’s weakest sectors.
Israeli defense companies – originally established to equip Israel’s military – have attempted to compensate for their losses in recent decades by dealing arms to regimes engaged in large-scale human rights violations like thePhilippines, South Sudan, and Myanmar, prompting larger moral questions regarding the values of Israeli society.
Is a “Jewish state” merely a European-style nation-state with Jewish decorations or is it a state that expresses authentic Hebrew values in its policies and institutions?
By prioritizing profits over human lives, Israeli defense companies are emulating the worst values of Western civilization.
Just as we should oppose the US arms industry profiting from Jewish and Palestinian blood while forcing us into a situation of dependency, we must oppose Israeli weapons manufacturers profiting from the suffering of Filipinos under Duterte’s regime.
