Growing international condemnation of the civilian suffering caused by Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has put the spotlight on countries that are the biggest suppliers of funding and weapons to Israel’s armed forces.
In the United States, by far Israel’s largest military supplier, Democratic lawmakers are putting increasing pressure on President Biden to commit future military aid to Israel to do more to protect Gaza’s citizens. Germany, Israel’s second-largest arms supplier, this week defended itself at the United Nations’ top court against claims that its arms sales made it complicit in the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Even governments that account for a much smaller share of aid or arms sales to Israel face heated internal debates and legal challenges over those supplies — with parliamentary votes or court orders ending exports to some countries.
Here’s a look at Israel’s military’s biggest suppliers:
United States
The United States has a long history of sending aid to Israel, stretching back to the 1940s. In recent decades, most aid has been in the form of military aid. In 2016, the Obama administration signed a 10-year deal to supply Israel with $3.8 billion a year, most of it in foreign military financing grants, which allow Israel to buy American weapons.
From 2019 to 2023, the United States supplied 69 percent of Israel’s arms imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks the global arms trade. President Biden also pushed for $14 billion in additional spending for Israel and for US military operations in the Middle East, although approval for the funding remains deadlocked in Congress.
While support for Israel once had reliable bipartisan support in Washington, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has prompted a chorus of Democrats in Congress to urge Mr. Biden to leverage American arms sales to try to change Israel’s decision-making in the war.
“My concern is that especially when these bombs come from this country, we also have a responsibility,” Sen. Angus King, R-Maine, said at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
The State Department said in March that it had received written assurances from Israel – as the United States requires of all countries receiving US weapons – that the weapons provided would be used in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Germany
In 2023, Germany approved sending about $353 million worth of military equipment to Israel, according to data from the country’s finance ministry, about 10 times more than what was approved the previous year. From 2019 to 2023, German exports made up 30% of the weapons Israel bought, according to the Stockholm institute.
In the past, Germany’s leaders viewed support for Israel as a historic duty to atone for the Holocaust. In hearings this week at the International Court of Justice, a UN court in The Hague, Germany’s lawyers countered arguments supporting the Gaza genocide by arguing that most of Germany’s military exports to Israel since the war began in October have been non-lethal. . , including protective equipment and communications equipment.
Other countries
From 2019 to 2023, Italy was Israel’s third-largest arms seller, according to the Stockholm institute, although it accounted for just 0.9 percent of Israel’s military imports.
Since the war in Gaza began, these sales have been a source of controversy.
Italy’s foreign minister in January told reporters that all arms shipments to Israel had been suspended since October 7. The defense minister, however, told the country’s parliament that exports continued but that only previously agreed orders were being shipped, according to news reports.
Britain, whose defense exports to Israel total about $53 million in 2022, has said it will not suspend those sales despite mounting pressure from opposition lawmakers. Foreign Secretary David Cameron, at a news conference alongside Foreign Secretary Antony J. Blinken in Washington, said on Tuesday that based on the “latest advice” on Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, Britain’s position on military exports remained “unchanged. “
