Dirty secret of Israel’s weapons exports: They’re tested on Palestinians

[Ohlalalalala]

Dirty secret of Israel’s weapons exports: They’re tested on Palestinians https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/17/israels-weapons-industry-is-the-gaza-war-its-latest-test-lab

Some excerpts:

Weapons tested in each war Israel wages see a spike in global demand. The current Gaza war is the latest laboratory for its arms industry.

Israel has not ratified the Arms Trade Treaty, which prohibits the sale of weapons at risk of being used in genocide and crimes against humanity. As such, its weapons exports have influenced the course of history for several nations, many led by controversial regimes.

Israel sold weapons to the South African apartheid government in 1975 and even agreed to supply nuclear warheads, according to declassified documents – though Israel denies doing so. Napalm and other weapons were supplied to El Salvador during its counterinsurgency wars between 1980-1992 that killed more than 75,000 civilians.

In 1994, Israeli-made bullets, rifles and grenades were allegedly used in Rwanda’s genocide which killed at least 800,000 people. Israel supplied weapons to the Serbian army that waged war against Bosnia from 1992-1995.

Despite the Israeli government’s own statement in 2018 declaring it had ceased sales to Myanmar, the Haaretz newspaper reported last year that weapons manufacturers continued supplying the military government until 2022, in violation of the 2017 international arms embargo against the country.

And, in September this year, Israel supplied UAVs, missiles and mortars to Azerbaijan for its campaign to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh, during which 100,000 ethnic Armenians were displaced.

Battle proven on ‘human animals’

Two days after the October 7 Hamas attack, Israel’s minister of defence Yoav Gallant compared the Palestinian people with “human animals”.

To Loewenstein, the dehumanising comments were unsurprising. “It is obvious over Israel’s occupation and countless wars that Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens. Like animals,” he said.

Over the years, the Israeli army has tested rubber bullets, artificial intelligence-powered robotic guns and various forms of crowd dispersal solutions, which have inflicted severe injuries on Palestinians.

Nabeel al-Shawa, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon who has worked in Gaza since 1978, treated many Palestinians wounded by Israeli firing on the Great March of Return in 2018 – when tens of thousands of Palestinians demanded they be allowed to return to the land they were forcibly removed from in 1948.

“For Israeli snipers, this was merely target practice with humans,” he said. “Most patients had been shot in joints deliberately to cause maximum damage, but not kill.

“These new rounds the Israeli army used caused injuries I have never seen before. In some cases the limb appeared intact, however, during surgery, I could not distinguish between bone and soft tissue.”

New weapons test in Gaza 2023?

Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, last week said in a press statement that medical teams in the enclave had “observed severe burns on the bodies of Palestinians who were killed and wounded by Israel’s bombs – whether caused by an unknown weapon or not – is something they have not seen in previous conflicts”.

Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, last week said in a press statement that medical teams in the enclave had “observed severe burns on the bodies of Palestinians who were killed and wounded by Israel’s bombs – whether caused by an unknown weapon or not – is something they have not seen in previous conflicts”.

Dr Ahmed el-Mokhallalati from the burn and plastic surgery division at al-Shifa Hospital, in an interview with the Toronto Star, described the wounds as “very deep – third and fourth-degree burns, and the skin tissue is impregnated with black particles and most of the skin thickness and all the layers underneath are burned down to the bone”.

El-Mokhallalati said that these weren’t phosphorus burns, “but a combination of some kind of incendiary bomb wave and other components”.

The Israeli military has not commented so far on the statement made by Gaza’s Ministry. But the mystery incendiary bombs, the Iron Sting’s debut and the reported use of the new Spark drone in the current war suggest that Israel is once again testing new weapons in conflict.

“Israel’s weapons will continue to remain attractive to international buyers based on performance in the occupation,” Loewenstein said. “But Israel is not just selling weapons; they’re selling the ideology to other countries – of getting away with it.”

For anyone interested I suggest reading the whole article which gives a detailed analysis.

Forgot to mention that it was written by British correspondent and photojournalist Paddy Dowling.

Thanks for sharing, the excerpt itself is devastating. When are the Palestinians going to be viewed by Israel as human beings like them? 💔

The one million dollar question.

One thing for sure though, as long as they are enabled by the West's hypocrites, they won't.

The West's "leaders" obviously.

Another very informative article:

Is Washington Responsible for What Israel Does With American Weapons?
The IDF’s Conduct in Gaza Should Prompt Scrutiny of U.S. Arms Transfers

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/washington-responsible-what-israel-does-american-weapons?check_logged_in=1&utm_medium=promo_email&utm_source=lo_flows&utm_campaign=registered_user_welcome&utm_term=email_1&utm_content=20231119

The United States is the biggest backer of the Israeli military, providing it with billions of dollars in military assistance every year. Because of this support and U.S. intelligence sharing, Israel’s brutal campaign in the Gaza Strip launched in response to Hamas’s unconscionable attack on Israeli civilians on October 7 raises serious legal and policy issues for the United States. U.S. domestic laws and standards restrict military and intelligence support that would be used to violate the law of war. Further, U.S. officials risk complicity if Israel uses U.S. support to commit war crimes. The Biden administration and the State Department in particular should therefore be taking concrete steps to monitor how Israel is using U.S. weapons and to prevent their misuse.
But promoting compliance with the law of war is not enough. Even if the military campaign was conducted in strict compliance with the law, it would bring only more suffering and destruction to Gaza and risk regional escalation that could further directly involve the U.S. military. The only way to address those risks is through de-escalation and, ultimately, finding a way out of the conflict.

BOMBS OVER GAZA
The conflict in Gaza is governed by the law of war, a body of international law also known as international humanitarian law. These rules, agreed to by states, balance considerations of military necessity with humanity and set limits on what parties to an armed conflict can and cannot do. They apply to both Israel and Hamas. The law of war requires that attacks be directed solely against military objectives (including enemy combatants), prohibits the targeting of civilians and civilian objects, and outlaws attacks not directed at specific military objectives. Hospitals, ambulances, schools, and places of worship are also ordinarily protected from attack, although their use for military purposes can potentially end that protection. These rules all reflect what lawyers call the principle of “distinction,” which is supposed to guide parties to the conflict in distinguishing civilians and civilian infrastructure from enemy fighters and military objectives. Under the principle of “proportionality,” the law prohibits attacks that could be expected to cause civilian harm that would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage the attack is expected to produce. For example, this principle would permit an attack on an enemy headquarters even if it is expected to cause civilian deaths so long as that harm is not “excessive.” In addition, both the attacking and defending parties have obligations to take precautions to further mitigate harm to civilians. For example, the use of involuntary human shields to impede military operations is prohibited, but such use does not relieve the attacking party of their own legal obligations.

U.S. officials risk complicity if Israel uses U.S. support to commit war crimes.

Despite the difficulty of reaching definitive legal conclusions about specific attacks, the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza and the accompanying rhetoric from Israeli officials should prompt both legal and policy concerns in Washington. In the first six days of the air campaign, Israel dropped 6,000 bombs more than the U.S.-led coalition did against the Islamic State in any single month of the war against ISIS, even at the height of the operation. This rate of attack raises questions regarding Israel’s target selection, its interpretation of proportionality, and the precautions the country is taking to avoid civilian casualties.

The characterization of the military campaign by Israeli officials should also raise eyebrows in Foggy Bottom. In the early days of the conflict, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson explained that for Israel’s bombing campaign, the “emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.” In responding to controversial strikes causing civilian casualties, the IDF has repeatedly emphasized that it had previously warned the population of Gaza to move south, as if that warning somehow absolved Israel from other legal obligations related to the protection of civilians.

Misleading title. You clearly want to peddle one side of this.

(Continued) Concerns over potential war crimes could lead to the involvement of the International Criminal Court, which has asserted jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories, including during the ongoing conflict. Karim Khan, the court’s prosecutor, has made pointed statements on the fighting, including that every leader making decisions about strikes will be required to “justify every strike against every civilian object” and that the burden is on the attacker to establish that ordinarily protected objects had lost their protections. If Khan decides to pursue legal charges, he will almost surely face a political firestorm from the United States, including from political leaders who have supported the ICC’s work in Ukraine. But if he does not pursue an investigation into Israel’s actions in Gaza, he will almost surely face blowback from countries outside the West who already decry what they see as a double standard in the way the court approaches its business. For them, it seems that the ICC pursues war crimes charges only against African leaders and warlords, leaving guilty parties in the West or those who partner with it untouched.

OP this is awful. I heard about this on a podcast. Shocking stuff. You honestly couldn't make it up. Ceasefire now! Human rights for Palestinians!

Indeed it is. Total impunity!

The UN has a vendetta against Israel

The UN are rightly calling out what they deem to be war crimes. Respect.

Weapons are always tested during war times. That when they get tested. You can't test them during peace time after all. All governments do this.

@tescocreditcard

https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/cruel-experiments-israels-arms-industry

Many of these weapons have been fired on peaceful demonstrators protesting against Israel's wall and settlements in the occupied West Bank. The villages of Nilin, Bilin and Nabi Saleh have been organizing regular protests for years.

Not always in wartime. On peaceful demonstrators in the West Bank.

No excuses. This is not ok.

Sorry, I thought you were talking about the current crisis.

It's never acceptable to fire weapons on people peacefully demonstrating, regardless of whether the weapons are being used for testing or not.

There's always one.

Please don't derail this thread for OP.

This is awful OP :(

@whatswrongwiththeworldddd Do you want us all to agree with you ? Is that the deal on here now ?

It is indeed.

😡

Hamas (voted in the Palestinian people - oh but they didn’t know you see … they misunderstood the manifesto calling for the eradication of Israel) are peace loving freedom fighting people. They are not part of a global Muslim brotherhood who want the extermination of all Jews and kafirs. They do not and never have launched multiple attacks, rockets and bombs into Israeli territory- Israel spent billions on an iron dome for no reason because the poor Palestinians were at worse only throwing rocks …. Occasionally.

The footage of multiple assault weapons found in the hospital are only the arms of the normal security guards. The tunnels & basements found under the hospital are infact just service areas - every hospital has them! The CCTV of hostages been dragged into the hospital is fake or they weren’t been dragged they were skipping in really …. the hostages taken in one of the worlds largest terrorist attacks that killed over 1,200 people shook their hand so they were actually willing volunteers going with the nice Hamas people just cos they asked. And they deserved it anyway. The 3 and 4 years olds kidnapped and held hostage are FINE; they have been having a jolly holiday with nice Hamas people. The Palestinian people aren’t hiding Hamas … they don’t exist; there aren’t any. The footage of women being raped is fake because Muslim brotherhood are well know for their feminism. The hundreds of people killed at the music festival is …. Fake. Didn’t happen or if it did, they are happy to be taken hostage (see shaking hands)

Hamas are not at all supported by Iran and Russia who don’t spread mass misinformation as a matter of course.

Below are three of SEVENTEEN case the international court of human rights are investigating in relation to war crimes. There have been multiple threads, social media posts, marches in londons and headlines on these of course. oh yes …. It sorry it only counts if it’s Jews who are accused.

But antisemitism isn’t a thing. It’s those bloody Jews making it up again.

Current war crimes investigations ( random 3/17)

Turkey …. Amnesty International stated that it had gathered evidence of war crimes and other violations committed by Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian forces who are said to "have displayed a shameful disregard for civilian life, carrying out serious violations and war crimes, including summary killings and unlawful attacks that have killed and injured civilians"

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Current focus:Alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the context of armed conflict in the DRC since 1 July 2002 (when the Rome Statute entered into force)

Uganda
Current focus: Alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the context of a conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the national authorities in Uganda since 1 July 2002 (when the Rome Statute entered into force)

Georgia
Current focus: Alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the context of an international armed conflict between 1 July and 10 October 2008
Current regional focus: According to the Prosecution's request for authorization to investigate: in and around South Ossetia