Israel’s Defense Ministry has declined to comment on whether Israel
continues to sell arms to South Sudan while a civil war rages there, according
to a report in the Haaretz newspaper.
About a month ago, Israeli politician Tamar Zandberg wrote to Defense
Minister Moshe Ya’alon, asking arms exports to the East African country be
stopped and that Ya’alon cancel or suspend export licenses granted by the
department in the Defense Ministry that monitors defense exports.
“There must be public transparency in the matter of defense exports,
especially during a civil war, to allow the public to receive all the
information needed to hold the necessary dialogue on the issue,” Zandberg wrote
Ya’alon.
But the Defense Ministry’s response, which came about three weeks ago,
gave no details about defense exports.
The defense minister’s chief of staff, Haim Blumenblatt, wrote to Zandberg
and said, “The defense export policy to all countries is scrutinized
periodically by the Defense Ministry, in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry
and other bodies, in accordance with the military and political interests of
the State of Israel, and including considerations of human and civil rights in
the export destination countries.”
Without mentioning South Sudan explicitly, the Defense Ministry’s
reply added, “Of course, the existence of a civil war in the export destination
country also impacts the defense export policy to that country. From the
abovementioned policy, decisions are made by the authority certified to grant
or withhold, suspend or annul licenses.”
Early last month, an official delegation from South Sudan visited
Israel and took part in the International Defense and Security Expo (which is
essentially a trade show for arms dealers and buyers) in Tel Aviv. The delegation
was reportedly headed by the South Sudanese transportation minister, Kuong
Danhier Gatluak.
A South Sudanese delegation also took part in an exhibition focusing
on domestic security six months ago.
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| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (seen left) greets South Sudan President Salva Kiir |
Zandberg appended to her letter a legal opinion by attorney Eitay
Mack, who noted that he had been informed of the presence of Israeli arms
dealers on flights to Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Mack also noted that
security forces in South Sudan were armed with the Israeli-made Galil ACE
assault rifle.
Israel tries to maintain ambiguity with regard to its arms sales and
does not reveal the names of the countries to which it exports arms, arguing
that doing so would lead to those countries cutting their strategic ties with
the state.
Nevertheless, it is known that in recent years the extent of arms
exports to African countries has been continually on the rise – from $107
million in 2010 to $318 million last year.
According to UN Register of Conventional Arms data from last year,
African states have significantly stepped up their purchases of missiles and
missile launchers in recent years – two areas in which Israel is considered a
world leader.
Witnesses on the ground in Sound have confirmed the presence of anti-aircraft Surface
to air missiles and missile launchers. The use of such weapons was also caught
on camera by a BBC film crew as government forces attempted to reclaim the town
of Bor in early 2014. Several UN helicopters have been down and international crew killed; however, nobody has ever confirmed or denied the air-crafts were taken down by surface to air missiles.
In an interview with Israeli financial daily Globes last month, Col.
(res.). Dubi Lavi, head of the Defense Export Controls Agency, said, “There are
countries to which we have blocked defense exports in recent years and cancelled
export licenses, and there are countries to which we opened exports.”
Lavi said he did not think Israel was arming entities in countries
where a civil war was currently going on and added that he would not approve
the sale of lethal weapons to a country where he knew this was happening.
However, the United States did stop the sale of Israeli weapons last
year, citing concern over harm to civilians. It happened last summer, when the
Americans prevented a deal for the sale of decommissioned Cobra helicopters
from Israel to Nigeria.
The U.S. State Department’s spokeswoman said the deal was stopped out
of concern that Nigeria would use this type of helicopter in its fight against
Boko Haram.
South Sudan’s government has been openly criticized for gross human
rights abuses against its own people by both the United States and the international
community.
Witnesses on the ground at the time when South Sudan's civil war began in
December 2013, saw the issuing of Galil ACE assault rifles.
The weeks and months that followed were rife with killings of unarmed
civilians. Such ethnically driven killings continue at the time of this
writing.
Analysts say South Sudan, previously southern Sudan before gaining
independence, has also long been a proxy battleground for Israel and Iran, which may lead to the blind support for the Juba government, despite gross human rights violations against it's own people, according to expert analysts.
Israel long supported South Sudan’s fight against its former, oppressive, Arab/Muslim
rulers in Khartoum. However, Iran has long supported the regime in Khartoum.
In late October 2012, Sudan’s Yarmouk weapons factory was allegedly
bombed by Israeli fighter jets.
The apparent air strike came following accusations that weapons from
Sudan were being smuggled from Sudan Red Sea port to be used by Palestinian
extremist groups against Israel.