Germany has stopped approving war weapons exports to Israel, source says

By Riham Alkousaa

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany has put a hold on new exports of weapons of war to Israel while it deals with legal challenges, according to a Reuters analysis of data and a source close to the Economy Ministry.

A source close to the ministry cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licences for arms to Israel due to legal and political pressure from legal cases arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law.

The Economy Ministry said on Thursday there was no ban on arms exports to Israel and there would not be one, with decisions made case-by-case after careful review, adding that international law, foreign and security policy were key factors in their assessments.

"There is no German arms export boycott against Israel," a spokesperson for government said on Wednesday, commenting on the report.

Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros ($363.5 million), including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase from 2022, according to data from the Economy Ministry, which approves export licences.

However approvals have dropped this year, with only 14.5 million euros' worth granted from January to Aug. 21, according to data provided by the Economy Ministry in response to a parliamentary question.

Of this, the weapons of war category accounted for only 32,449 euros. 

In its defence of two cases, one before the International Court of Justice and one in Berlin brought by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, the government has said no weapons of war have been exported under any licence issued since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, apart from spares for long-term contracts, the source added.

Israel's assault on Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, according to the local Hamas-controlled health ministry. It has also displaced most of the population of 2.3 million, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court, which Israel denies.

No case challenging German arms exports to Israel has yet succeeded, including a case brought by Nicaragua at the ICJ.

DISAGREEMENT ON ARMS EXPORTS IN GERMAN GOVERNMENT

But the issue has created friction within the government as the Chancellery maintains its support for Israel while the Greens-led economy and foreign ministries, sensitive to criticism from party members, have increasingly criticised the Netanyahu administration.

Legal challenges across Europe have also led other allies of Israel to pause or suspend arms exports.

Britain this month suspended 30 out of 350 licences for arms exports to Israel due to concerns that Israel could be violating international humanitarian law. 

In February, a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands to halt all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns about their use in attacks on civilian targets in Gaza.

President Joe Biden's administration this year paused - but then resumed - shipments of some bombs to Israel after U.S. concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza.

Approvals and shipments of other types of weapons, in more precise systems, continued as U.S. officials maintained that Israel needed the capacity to defend itself.

Alexander Schwarz, a lawyer at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which has filed five lawsuits against Berlin, suggested that the significant decline in approvals for 2024 indicated a genuine, though possibly temporary, reluctance to supply weapons to Israel.  

"However, I would not interpret this as a conscious change in policy," Schwarz added.

($1 = 0.8981 euros)

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa in Berlin; additional reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Lisa Shumaker and Alex Richardson)