France continues supplying weapon parts to Israel amid growing criticism

PARIS

As Israel's deadly attacks on Gaza have continued for over the past nine months, France, one of the world's largest arms producers, has faced public backlash for continuing to send weapons parts to the country.

The scale of destruction and human rights violations in Gaza has strengthened the argument in international public opinion that countries supplying arms to Israel are "complicit in the crime" and should be held accountable.

According to information compiled by Anadolu correspondents, a July 2023 arms export report presented to parliament by the French Defense Ministry indicated that France has issued some 767 export licenses for Israel since 2015.

Additionally, France sells an average of 20 million euros ($21.9 million) worth of military equipment to Israel each year.

The report stated that the value of military equipment sent from France to Israel between 2013 and 2022 reached 207.6 million euros (nearly $266 million).

Moreover, France issued export licenses for Israel worth a total of 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) between 2014 and 2022.

In an open letter published on the organization's website on Feb. 20, Jean-Claude Samoullier, president of Amnesty International France, highlighted the risk of "genocide" in Gaza and called on French President Emmanuel Macron to halt arms sales to Israel.

11 NGOs move court to stop arms sales to Israel

In April, 11 NGOs in Paris, including Amnesty International, filed a court case to stop France's arms sales to Israel, arguing that Israel targets civilians in Gaza and violates human rights.

In May, the court entirely rejected the requests of organizations seeking to suspend arms export licenses to Israel.

Benoit Muracciole, president of the ASER, one of the 11 human rights NGOs that sued the French government, told Anadolu that they had written a letter in February to the then-French prime minister, along with ACAT and Stop Fueling War associations, requesting the cancelation of permits for the export of ammunition and weapon parts known as ML3 to Israel.

Muracciole explained that they subsequently took the matter to the administrative court in April.

"We concluded that this arms transfer violated the Arms Trade Treaty under the conditions in which the Israeli army has operated in Palestine for years."

Muracciole noted that, under paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Arms Trade Treaty, if an arms transfer violates France's international obligations in human rights and humanitarian law, the Paris government is obliged to suspend all of them.

He emphasized that France, which has international commitments to transparency in arms exports, often fails to adhere to them.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz​​​​​​​