Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) said today in a statement that the European Union’s contracts of €59 million with Israeli military companies to supply war drones for the surveillance of asylum seekers at sea is immoral, of questionable legality and encourages human rights abuses in occupied Palestine.
The €59 million of the recent EU drone contracts reportedly went to two Israeli military companies: Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, IAI. Elbit’s Hermes 900 has been experimented on the population of the besieged Gaza Strip in the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza, Operation Protective Edge.
#EU Should Cancel €59M Contract with Israeli Companies for Drones to Surveille Migrants
Press Release: https://t.co/rcy0ESthsb pic.twitter.com/DuaiIcW1qn
— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) May 5, 2020
This shows EU investment in Israeli equipment whose value was demonstrated by its use in the course of oppressing the Palestinian people and occupying their territory, said Euro-Med in a statement. These drone purchases will be seen correctly as supporting and incentivizing such experimental use of military technology by Israel’s repressive regime, it added.
“It is outrageous for the EU to buy drones from Israel drone manufacturers considering the repressive and unlawful ways that drones have been used to oppress Palestinians living under occupation for more than fifty years,” said Prof. Richard Falk, Euro-Med Chairman of Board of Trustees.
“It is also unacceptable and inhumane for the EU to use drones, however obtained, to violate the basic rights of migrants risking their lives at sea to seek asylum in Europe,” Prof. Falk added.
The EU should discourage human rights violations against Palestinians by refraining from purchasing Israeli military equipment used in the occupied Palestinian territories, said Euro-Med.
'Combat Proven': Israel's thriving war business in Europe… https://t.co/CMHyDi2h6y
— Media Review Network (@MRN1SA) January 16, 2019
“Israel, as a country well-versed in manipulating the term “security”, is poised to benefit immensely from this development. It is already skillfully exploiting the security-obsessed European mindset in order to expand its military market outreach,” wrote Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo in a recent article.
“Israel is the seventh-largest arms exporter in the world, and is emerging as a leader in the global export of aerial drones,” Baroud and Rubeo added.
“The Israeli brand is particularly popular because its technology is ‘combat-proven’. Indeed, the Israeli military has had ample opportunity to test its diverse weapons and security cache against Palestinian civilians.”
(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)
