The Wallonia regional government in Belgium has suspended licenses to export munitions, specifically gunpowder, to Israel after the International Court of Justice ruled against it, the Minister of Housing, Christophe Collignon, announced on Tuesday.
The export licenses had been granted at the beginning of 2023 to the PB Clermont munitions factory, located in Engis (Liège) and were suspended by the Minister-President of Wallonia Elio Di Rupo.
“The January 26 order of the International Court of Justice, the main judicial organ of the United Nations, as well as the unacceptable deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip led the Minister-President to temporarily suspend the valid licenses”, Collignon said.
Wallonia, one of Belgium's three regions in its highly federal system, has suspended arms sales to Israel following the ICJ ruling.
Time for the UK to follow suit if we are to comply with our own laws.https://t.co/QUSPY1uhlN
— James Schneider (@schneiderhome) February 6, 2024
According to the Belgian news website L’Echo, the announcement came after a question by Hélène Ryckmans, an MP with the Ecolo party, on exports of gunpowder, via Antwerp, to Ashdod, an Israeli port close to the Gaza Strip.
Japan, Too
On Monday, the Japanese Itochu Corporation’s aviation unit announced that it will end its cooperation with Israeli defense contractor company Elbit Systems Ltd by the end of February following the ICJ ruling.
“Taking into consideration the International Court of Justice’s order on January 26, and that the Japanese government supports the role of the Court, we have already suspended new activities related to the MOU, and plan to end the MOU by the end of February,” Itochu Chief Financial Officer Tsuyoshi Hachimura said.
The International Court of Justice ordered Israel on January 26 to take measures to prevent and punish direct incitement of genocide in its ongoing war in Gaza.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 27,585 Palestinians have been killed, and 66,978 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Following ICJ Ruling, Japan’s Itochu to Sever Ties with Israel’s Elbit
Moreover, at least 8,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all of the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
