Israeli human rights activists demonstrated on Tuesday at the entrance to the ISDEF22 weapons and security export exhibition in Tel Aviv, among them Hadash MK Ofer Cassif (Joint List). They called “Arms trade is death trade,” War starts here,” and “No right time for war crimes.”
This year’s exhibition included official delegations from, among other, the Philippines, Morocco, Uganda, Bahrain, and Belarus, which recently took part in the Russian invasion to Ukraine. The activists demanded an end to the Israeli arms trade and the profit-making of Israeli arms and cyber companies on the expense of lives and the freedom of civilians, journalists and human rights activists in the occupied Palestinian territories and around the world.
According to MK Cassif, “War in Europe, civilians killed and millions of refugees on the run, and once again Israel chooses to advance itself with destructive technologies and weapons, used to kill and imprison civilians, journalists and human rights activists. Ayelet Shaked (Israeli minister of interior) was quoted in Ha’aertz last week saying Israel should attempt to profit from the war in Ukraine. Israel arms dark regimes and wars around the world and expels refugees from the very same wars.”
Israel is ranked eighth in world arms exports, and in relation to the number of its inhabitants, it’s the largest arms exporter in the world. Israeli companies export weapons and offensive technologies to countries that commit blatant violations of human rights and crimes against humanity – after the Israeli military industry tries them on Palestinians, and markets them as “battle proven.”
For more information about Israel’s arm export industry: https://www.dimse.info/
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