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

The arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant could lead to countries rethinking selling arms to Israel, experts say.

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. [...]

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. [...] 

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.”