As Israel’s new Knesset was sworn in on Thursday, a few dozen activists protested outside Jerusalem’s iconic parliamentary building to call on the country’s leaders to halt the sale of weapons to governments violating human rights.
The protest was led by activist Elie Yosef, who has been leading a movement of Israelis from across the political spectrum to raise awareness and pressure elected officials on the issue.
Yosef and many others concerned with how a Jewish state is meant to behave on the world stage have criticized Israel’s government and defense industry for betraying Jewish values through arming human rights abusers like Myanmar, the Philippines, South Sudan and others.
Weapons manufacturers prioritizing profits over human lives is perhaps one of the most destructive features of westernization in Israeli society. According to protest organizers, Israeli firms have been regularly exporting arms to states with poor human rights records.
In 2017, Myanmar’s military made public its acquisition of three fully armed Super Dvora MK III patrol boats produced by Israel Aerospace Industries.
A campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar’s northern region has been taking place since late 2016. Over 900,000 Rohingya have fled the country since 2015 due to the mass arsons, rapes and massacres carried out by the Myanmar military.
In August 2016, Israel’s Tar Ideal Concept Ltd. global defense contracting company published pictures on its website of Myanmar soldiers training with Israeli-manufactured CornerShot rifles.
The company published a document featuring the pictures, entitled “Israeli Corner – shot now in service in Myanmar’s Special Operations Task Force.”
In 2018, Silver Shadow Advanced Security Systems Ltd. (SSASS) was reported to have signed a memorandum of understanding with Rayo Illuminar Corp. (RIC) to open a manufacturing plant in the Philippines for the purpose of producing firearms and ammunition.
According to reports, SSASS “committed to infuse an initial investment of $50 million” into the factory, in addition to training at least 160 personnel.
Since Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte entered office in 2016, thousands of the country’s Muslims, leftists and Filipinos involved in the drug trade have been killed by security forces as part of what the regime refers to as “an operation to root out illegal drug use.”
ACE Galil assault rifles manufactured by Israel Military Industries have also been sold to South Sudan, where roughly 400,000 people are estimated to have been killed since a civil war began in 2013. Member of Knesset Benny Gantz (Blue & White), a former Israeli military chief of staff, is rumored to have been personally involved in arms sales to South Sudan.
Because export licenses for arms sales to foreign countries are not made available to the public, strict monitoring has been difficult.
Yosef’s group has in the past made demands for the formation of a parliamentary committee to take ethical considerations into account when issuing export licenses to arms manufacturers and to instruct the defense ministry and other government authorities which nations Israel should and should not sell arms to.
Yehuda HaKohen, a longtime student of Yosef, told Vision Magazine from Thursday’s demonstration that he sees the real issue as actually transcending beyond the defense industry and touching the very core of what it means to have a “Jewish” state.
“We need to ask ourselves if selling arms to human rights abusers is really an expression of the identity we want our state to represent,” he said. “Now that we’ve come home and established a Jewish state after so many centuries of exile, we need to figure out what that means in terms of the values expressed by our state institutions.”
“Many of our leaders currently look to Western powers for moral guidance. But does the United States profiting from conflicts throughout the world, including our conflict with the Palestinians, justify emulating their values and behavior? On Rosh HaShana this week, many Jewish families ate the head of a sheep as a sign that Israel should act as the head and not the tail. Shouldn’t we strive to be a moral leader rather than a follower on the world stage?”
“We need to ask ourselves what makes a state ‘Jewish’,” he continued. “Is it merely a European-style nation-state with Jewish decorations or is it a state that expresses authentic Jewish values in its policies and institutions?”
“Just as we should oppose the US arms industry profiting from Israeli and Palestinian blood while forcing both peoples deeper into a situation of dependency, we must also oppose our own weapons industry profiting from war crimes being committed in Myanmar, the Philippines and South Sudan.”
HaKohen is correct in pointing out the connection between the weapons Israel receives from the United States and the behavior of the Israeli arms industry. According to Israel’s most recent agreement with Washington, 100% of military aid received must be spent on American products, causing further losses for Israeli defense companies that were initially established to equip Israel’s army but have long ago lost their own country’s military as a client and have. As a result, these companies have resorted to betraying the values a Jewish state is meant to express.
Yosef and his comrades are doing the Jewish people a tremendous service by bringing the public’s attention to this issue. Israeli society and the broader Jewish world need to have a long overdue national conversation on whether profiting from the blood of innocent people is truly an expression of the values we came home to manifest.
