Netanyahu says Germany ‘rewarding Hamas’ by halting arms exports
The Israeli prime minister has “expressed his disappointment” over Germany’s decision to suspend some weapons transfers to Israel during a call with German Chancellor Merz.
“Instead of supporting Israel’s just war against Hamas, which carried out the most horrific attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Germany is rewarding Hamas terrorism by embargoing arms to Israel,” Netanyahu’s office said in a readout of the talks.
It added that Israel’s goal “is not to take over Gaza, but to free Gaza from Hamas and enable a peaceful government to be established there”.
‘Germany has international law obligations to halt arms exports’
Leon Castellanos-Jakiewicz, a senior researcher in international law at the TMC Asser Instituut in The Hague, says it remains to be seen what Germany’s decision to suspend weapons export permits to Israel means for the Israeli war on Gaza.
“The chancellor has said that all weapons that would be used in Gaza will not be exported. We need to know what that means,” Castellanos-Jakiewicz told Al Jazeera, noting that Berlin’s move does not amount to a blanket suspension.
“The language is important because other weapons which the German government deems not to be used in Gaza could still be exported,” he explained.
He said Germany has international legal obligations regarding the arms trade, particularly as a signatory to the UN Arms Trade Treaty and under the EU’s common arms exports policy.
“According to these instruments, if there is an overriding risk or a clear risk that humanitarian law and human rights law will be violated with those weapons, then the export should be stopped,” Castellanos-Jakiewicz said.
“So I’m sure that the German authorities – in this case, the minister of economic affairs and the foreign office and ministry of defence, who are in charge of making these risk assessments – have been checking their export licences against the criteria of international law.”
