PALESTINE NEXUS /ZACHARY FOSTER

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For decades, Israel has supplied weapons and military technology to the world’s most brutal military regimes. This is a brief history of Israel’s support for apartheid, atrocities, war crimes and genocide around the world. 

Chile

In the 1970s-80s, Israel supplied arms to Chile’s Augusto Pinochet during its 17-year long military rule in which civilians were routinely targeted, tortured, and disappeared. The Israeli military trained the Chilean secret service, the DINA, described by the CIA in 1974 as a “Gestapo-type police force,” which tortured at least 35,000 and disappeared over 3,000 people. Meanwhile, Israel maintained excellent relations with Chile throughout Pinochet’s rule, sponsoring Chilean leaders on many state visits.

Now, an Israeli-Chilean family seeks justice for their father, who was tortured and killed by the dictatorship. They have sued the Attorney General to open investigations into the involvement of Israeli government institutions in arms deals with Pinochet. The Israeli lawyer and human rights activist Eitay Mack has filed a series of freedom of information petitions for the release of documents that would detail the nature of Israel’s involvement. “The human rights issue is not part of the consideration of the officials in the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, unless there is big public pressure on them,” Mack said. Israeli leaders are unconcerned with how the weapons are used so long as they improve Israel’s diplomatic ties abroad.

Guatemala

In 1977, Israel became Guatemala’s principal weapons supplier, providing the country’s authoritarian leaders with $6 million worth of Galil rifles and Uzi submachine guns. Israel also supplied spyware and electronic surveillance and designed and operated the radar system at Guatemala City’s international airport. Guatemalan officials have even bragged their soldiers carry Israeli weapons and underwent training from Israeli soldiers. Guatemalan leaders have also embraced Israeli military tactics, such as using the theoretical presence of guerilla forces in an area as a pretext to indiscriminately kill civilians. During the civil war, right wing supporters of the regime even spoke about the “Palestinianization” of Guate’s indigenous population.

Then, in 1982, Israeli officials helped Guatemala’s Efraín Ríos Montt carry out a military coup. Montt, who later thanked over 300 Israeli advisors for their help in the takeover, ruled during the bloodiest period of Guatemala’s civil war — known as the Mayan genocide or the Silent Holocaust. In 30 years, over 200,000 Mayan people were killed, tortured, and disappeared. Montt’s rule lasted from 1982-83 during which time his regime disappeared some 70,000 people.

South Africa

In the 1970s and 1980s, Israel became one of apartheid South Africa’s most important arms suppliers. In 1988, South Africa saved Israel’s cash-starved defense industry after it purchased 60 Kfir combat planes for $1.7 billion. Israel was then able to launch a reconnaissance satellite that was only made possible after the weapons sales to the apartheid regime.

South Africa operated an apartheid state, a racist legal system that segregated social and civil life in South Africa, privileging the white minority and condemning the Black majority. Apartheid security forces killed between 11,000 and 21,000 people and detained more than 80,000 people without trial over the course of the regime’s four decades of rule. Today, South Africa continues to suffer from the ramifications of apartheid rule.

Serbia

In 1991, Israel made one of the largest arms deals with Serbia during the Bosnian Genocide,  concealing the weapons transfers in violation of a UN arms embargo that same year. Israel’s military relationship with Serbia continued through at least 1995, with Serbian soldiers having received covert Israeli training in Greece and toting Israeli Uzis, snipers, shells and missiles. In 2016, the Israeli Supreme Court declined to release documents despite a petition filed by Mack and others because it would pose a risk to Israeli foreign relations.  To this day the extent of Israeli support for the Bosnian genocide remains unknown.

The Serbian wars waged against Muslims in Bosnia and Croatia after the dissolution of Yugoslavia have been described as the most egregious acts of ethnic cleansing “Europe had seen since the Holocaust.” Between 1991 and 1995 over 250,000 people were killed, and many more injured, raped, and held in concentration camps.

Rwanda

Israel provided arms to Hutu government forces during the Rwandan Genocide. Israeli weapons manufacturing companies sent 7 shipments of bullets, rifles and grenades to Rwanda between April and July 1994 alone despite an international arms embargo. In 2014, human rights lawyer Mack, alongside others, once again petitioned for documents on the arms trade but were denied because the information might harm “Israel’s state security and foreign relations.”

In 1994, Hutu militias killed more than half a million Tutsis in Rwanda in less than 100 days. It was the culmination of decades of tension between Rwanda’s majority ruling ethnic group, the Hutus, and the Tutsi minority. In total, over 1 million people perished in what is considered to be the fastest genocide in human history.

The Philippines

Israel supplied weapons to the Philippines during President Rodrigo’s Duterte’s infamous drug war in which government forces and death squads killed over 12,000 people. Philippine Security forces carried out the executions with Israeli rifles and handguns in largely poor, urban neighborhoods of the country.

In a 2018 visit to Israel, Duterte openly acknowledged that he favored purchasing Israeli weapons because there are virtually no restrictions on the sales while boastfully comparing himself to Hitler. In 2016, Duterte ran on a presidential campaign promising to kill 100,000 people in his first six months in office. He won by a landslide.

Myanmar

Since 2018, Israeli companies have supplied at least four shipments of weapons to the military junta in Myanmar, including patrol boats, advanced radar systems, air combat maneuvering instrumentation and drones.

Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems, for instance, continued pre-existing trade relations with the regime, ignoring both an international arms embargo and a 2017 Israeli Supreme Court ban. Israel’s government claimed it had stopped sending weapons to Myanmar in 2018, but arms shipments continued as late as 2022, after the junta overthrew the country’s democratically elected leaders a year earlier. In addition, Israel CAA Industries sold millions worth of arms-manufacturing equipment to Myanmar while an Israeli cyber firm supplied the country with spyware to surveil civilian populations.

In 2017, Israeli weapons and equipment were used to carry out a genocide of Rohingya Muslims. That year, Myanmar’s military Junta killed 9,000 Rohingya between August and September alone, with over 500,000 having fled to Bangladesh.

South Sudan

An Israeli general has been accused of trafficking $150 million worth of arms to the South Sudanese government under the guise of an agricultural firm. Israel provided assault rifles and operated surveillance equipment that has been used to target journalists and opposition figures. This was in spite of a 2018 UN Security Council arms embargo, a 2015 UN Report detailing Israeli violations of a previous ban of weapon sales and Israel’s ongoing promises since 2011 to suspend transfers of lethal equipment.

Years of political unrest and conflict between ethnic and militia groups in South Sudan have culminated in what some say is the “biggest hunger crisis” in recent history. Since 2018, some 400,000 people have been killed due to violence, starvation and disease, and between 4 and 11 million people have been displaced.

Azerbaijan

Israel has sold billions of dollars worth of arms to Azerbaijan since 2012. The Azerbaijani military even published videos displaying Israeli missiles and suicide drones and a factory producing these drones on Azeri soil. Meanwhile, the government has also used the Israeli company NSO’s spyware to target journalists and opposition activists.

In 2023, Azerbaijani forces continued to use Israeli arms to institute a 9-month blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh after decades of fighting that had left tens of thousands dead. They starved out the region’s 120,000 ethnic Armenians, blocking access to food, medicine, and fuel until January 24, 2024 when Azerbaijani forces ethnically cleansed the last remaining Armenians in the beleaguered enclave.

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Israeli arms dealers have been intimately involved in many of the world’s most horrific acts of violence over the past half-century. In addition to the cases cited above, Israel has also reportedly supplied weapons to Argentina, Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea, and Nicaragua. In each of these cases as well, Israeli arms have been used to carry out atrocities. The Israeli firm Pegasus is also distributing its spyware to authoritarian states, where the technology will almost certainly be used to crack down on journalists and opposition figures.

Israeli human rights lawyer Mack emphasizes that the sales are intended to boost Israel’s diplomatic standing in the world. “In my opinion, economic incentive should never be above the moral issues and the human rights issues.”

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