The Spanish businessmen who they sell weapons to Israel They have silence in their favor. The operations carried out in the last ten years, likely to have contributed to the genocidal machinery that Benjamin Netanyahu activated in October 2023 against Gaza, are protected under the secrecy guaranteed by the confidentiality agreement signed in 2014 by the National Intelligence Center (CNI) Spanish and the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
According to data obtained by Publicbetween 2014 and the first half of 2023 – the last period for which data is available – the Governments of Mariano Rajoy and Pedro Sánchez authorized 355 defense material exports to Israel for a total amount of 108,341,101 euros.
The figures from that period contrast with those recorded in the years prior to the signing of the agreement between Spain and Israel to protect military businesses. According to the information collected by Amnesty Internationalbetween 2002 and 2013 –just one year before the confidentiality agreement came into force–, Spain carried out operations with Israel worth 14.8 million euros.
Exports authorized since 2014 include fuzes for testing and validation in illuminating mortar shells and electro-optical surveillance, observation and target detection systems, artillery ammunition for “internal testing by public defense companies” or spare parts and accessories for night vision equipment.
“Risk of diversion”
According to the reports of the Secretary of State for Commercein that same period the Interministerial Regulatory Board for Foreign Trade in Defense and Dual Use Materials (JIMMDU), the body in charge of granting or rejecting export requests, denied 17 licenses for a total of 260,813,388 euros.
This large amount is due to the fact that in 2022 there was a denial of export of a software computer scientist to Israeli private distributors worth 250 million euros, due to the “existence of refusals from other countries and risk of diversion in use and destination”.
Likewise, among the rejected exports is an export license to Israel for boats rubber bullet cartridgeswhich was denied by the Rajoy Government in 2015 “due to the possible risk of diversion for use in internal repression.”
In 2017, the PP Executive also denied two individual export licenses for paths “public defense companies“in Israel of ten barrels for the development of rifles and 17 directions of fire for a battle tank for a joint value of 1.9 million euros, citing the “regional situation” as the reason.
“Respect for human rights”
In 2019, the Government of Pedro Sánchez rejected an export license for 2,000 immobilization shackles worth 17,000 euros destined for the Israel Police due to the “internal situation” and “respect for human rights.”
That same year, two export licenses were denied to a private company in Israel. 550 electronic devices that were going to be used by the Armed Forces of that country in unmanned aircraft. In that case, the Government alleged that It was “lethal material” and that there was “risk of military use.”
It also rejected an individual export license to a private company in the computer sector from the same country of different material hardware and software security worth 10 million euros, in this case for “not having enough information about the end user.”
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