The West is giving Israel weapons while discussing delivering aid to Gaza
Al Jazeera
Does the West risk charges of complicity by supplying weapons to Israel in light of its plausible genocide in Gaza?
As lawmakers across much of the West debate the extent to which Israel may be hampering the passage of lifesaving aid into Gaza, the weapons exports that underpin much of Israel’s war on the besieged enclave continue to flow.
Since the war began, the volume of weapons entering Israel has increased as huge volumes of ordinance are used to flatten areas of Gaza as well as kill, maim and displace its civilian population.
“On the one hand, we have this dire humanitarian need, on the other hand, we have this continual supply of weapons to the country Israel, [which is] creating that need,” Akshaya Kumar, the director of crisis advocacy at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said.
When it comes to arming another country, international law has rules and conventions to control who arms whom and what the weapons are used for.
Under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide – which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in January may plausibly be under way in Gaza – states are legally bound to prevent genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
