Four million euros' worth of weaponry exports from the national authorities have been authorized for Israel.
Unleashing the Arms Pipeline: Germany's Four Million Euro Arms Deal with Israel
Gear up, Israel! The combination of Union and SPD's freshly formed federal government has given the green light to a four million euro arms export deal with Israel. In the span of just five weeks, German manufacturers were handed permits to export military equipment worth €3,986,000 to the Middle Eastern nation, according to intelligence shared with the Left party's parliamentary group and later delivered to the German Press Agency.
But here's the twist – these exports don't include any lethal weapons, it's all about equipment, systems, and hardware. This revelation comes as the first data unveiled by the new government on its arms exports to Israel. So far, when quizzed by the media, the government has remained hush-hush about the secret sessions of the Federal Security Council responsible for arms exports. However, they are transparent when it comes to honoring requests from parliamentarians.
The volume of these arms exports pales in comparison to the approvals made during the previous government, worth almost half a billion euros, post the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel slid into tenth place among the most significant recipient countries of the German arms industry, with exports reaching €28 million in the first quarter of 2025.
For months, discussions about German arms deliveries to Israel have been swirling in the mix. The International Court of Justice in The Hague is even hosting a lawsuit filed by the Latin American country of Nicaragua, claiming that Germany is aiding and abetting genocide.
Lately, the new German government has been turning up the heat on Israel's activities in Gaza. There were calls from the SPD to halt arms exports to Israel completely, but the Union remains unconvinced. The Left party's deputy, Becker, labeled the federal government's approval of a four million euro arms deal "in the midst of an escalating war" as "irresponsible from a security policy perspective and morally scandalous." The funds, they argue, could have been used to deliver "countless medicines and food" to the Gaza Strip instead.
[1] dw.com[2] spiegel.de[3] tagesschau.de[4] bbc.com[5] reuters.com
The community and policy makers are under scrutiny for the row surrounding Germany's ongoing policy-and-legislation on arms exports, particularly to war-and-conflicts regions like Israel. The ongoing conflict in Gaza has sparked debates in politics about the morality and responsibility of such policy decisions, with critics labeling the exports as irresponsible and scandalous, even during periods of escalating violence.
Despite the recent four million euro arms deal with Israel, the export of lethal weapons remains absent, focusing instead on equipment, systems, and hardware. This disclosure marks the first data released by the new government on their arms exports to Israel, following mounting general-news coverage about potential policy implications and possible violations of international law, such as the lawsuit filed by Nicaragua at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
