The Spanish government has awarded 1.044 billion to the Israeli defense industry in the midst of the attack on Gaza.

BarcelonaThe Spanish government has awarded 46 contracts to Israeli military industries worth €1.044 billion since October 7, 2023, when the genocidal offensive against the Gaza Strip began. Of these contracts, 10 have yet to be formalized, including the purchase of rocket launchers, missiles, and other war material. The Delàs Center for Peace Studies revealed this Friday after compiling data from the State Procurement Platform. The Moncloa (Spanish government) is not committed to halting all of these pending contracts, although the second vice president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, expressed support for terminating them.

The long list was revealed the day after the Spanish government will ultimately stop And after a severe crisis within the coalition, a contract to purchase 15 million rounds of ammunition for the Civil Guard for €6 million was approved. Díaz, who in an interview this morning on RNE (National Radio) appeared conciliatory with Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska—the main guarantor of the purchase—acknowledged that she "senses" that halting these contracts could end in litigation. However, she considered that there are "sufficient legal grounds" to support the decision to detain them. This is especially true of the fact that there is an outstanding arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, the PP (People's Party) has already announced that it will take the matter to the Court of Auditors.

Recently, Sánchez himself and his Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, have reiterated that there were no arms sales transactions with Israeli companies. However, data from the research center show that the contracting has continued. European legislation on arms trade prohibits the purchase and sale of military equipment to countries likely to use them in operations that violate human rights, as is the case with Israel, which faces accusations of genocide before the UN Court of Justice.

Some of the contracts correspond to maintenance or modernization services for products acquired in the past, but others are new agreements with the Israeli war machine. The Delàs Center warns of a "worrying complicity between Spanish and Israeli arms companies." It also notes that the Spanish government could declare an arms embargo if it had the political will to do so. In fact, the parties to the left of the PSOE registered a proposal in Congress last year that is currently in progress. standby.

Excerpt from the report of the Delàs Center for Peace Studies

Descarrega't el document sencer del Centre Delàs d'Estudis per la Pau

What are the controversial arms purchase contracts?

The contract revealed Thursday by Cadena SER with the company IMI Systems, which the Spanish government has agreed to terminate, was just the tip of the iceberg. Data released this Friday by the Delàs Center reveals that there are ten more contracts not yet formalized, including the purchase of Silam rocket launchers (576.4 million) and Spike missiles (237.5 million), as well as others with the Israeli companies Netline Communication Technologies and Guardian Homeland Secur. In the last six months, the Spanish government has awarded at least 10 defense procurement contracts to Israeli companies or their subsidiaries, and has also formalized another 10 contracts that had been awarded after October 7, 2023, when arms purchases from Israel had been suspended.

"The Spanish president has lied, the defense minister has lied, the interior minister has lied," Eduardo Melero, a researcher at the Delàs Center and professor of administrative law at the Autonomous University of Madrid, told ARA. Melero warns of the double standard with Putin's Russia: "When Russia sent weapons to Ukraine, Europe and Spain decreed an embargo on the Russian military industry, but they didn't want to do it with Israel: the EU could have done it, but didn't because of its internal divisions. Spain could have done it, but instead it bought weapons from Israel."

What weapons does Spain buy from Israel?

The Silam rocket launchers are an Israeli product that has been adapted for the Spanish Army and also works on relatively small vehicles. cedes this strategic technology to other countries. The contract, worth €576.4 million, was awarded on December 15, 2023, two months after the Israeli offensive against Gaza and 30,000 deaths in 2010. The government and the winning company (in this case, Expal, a Spanish company that is part of the Elbit consortium, and the Spanish company Escribano) could stop it. NATO has been purchasing for more than 20 years: initially, missiles manufactured in Israel were imported, but now they are manufactured in Spain and only their most advanced components are imported. €237.5 million. "This contract corresponds to the fifth generation of this missile, and they know that in Gaza the Israeli army is already testing the sixth, because the Palestinian territories are a great laboratory for the Israeli military industry, which exports its products to the world with the seal of combat-tested," he explained.

Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, four maintenance and spare parts contracts for Cardom mortars have also been awarded and formalized with the Elbit group. generating a dependency," explains Pozo. "Other NATO partners use mortars manufactured in other countries, but it seems that in Spain there is a fascination with Israeli military technology, as if they were weapons from France or Norway, without taking into account that they are developed by occupying and murdering the Palestinian people," he adds. millions of euros in designators for combat systems, which was awarded in February 2024, a month after Israel was accused of genocide by the UN International Court of Justice, and which was formalized two months later. improvements of interest to the administration." There are also contracts for less value for signal jammers, small arms, X-ray systems and personal protective equipment. Others respond to the purchase of communications equipment for the army with Elbyt, as well as perimeter surveillance systems for the ports of Tarragona and Huelva with the "does the Spanish government say?

The Moncloa (Spanish National Council) is seeking arguments to continue maintaining that "Spain has not purchased weapons from Israel since the war began." It emphasizes that the contract for the M339 Setter program was halted on November 26, but what about the rest? Sources from the Ministry of Defense indicate that the contracts for the Silam rocket launcher and the Spike missile will continue, even though they are still listed as unformalized. One reason they give is that the procedure began before October 7, 2023—although the award agreement dates back to later—and the Moncloa (Spanish National Council) adds that these are components for Spanish manufacturing that can only be purchased from these Israeli companies. They are, therefore, irreplaceable.

Regarding the contracts reported by the Delàs Center, the Moncloa (Spanish National Council) also points out that there may be some that come from a biennial or framework contract that is still in force. Others, the Spanish government, emphasize that the imported product is not weapons and even claims that there are procedures that appear as "awarded" on the Procurement Portal but are "on hold." They do not specify which ones.

How does Israel benefit from exports?

Spain is not a major arms exporter to Israel (although this cannot be quantified precisely because Spanish arms exports have been subject to the State Secrets Act since the 1980s), but these figures clearly show that it has significant influence as a client of the Israeli military industry. "Companies like Elbyt export 80% of their production; they produce much more than they spend on the war against the Palestinians and neighboring countries, because this way they lower production costs and also make large profits. Furthermore, arms are an instrument of foreign policy, since even though they are private companies, they have close ties to exports," adds Pozo. The symbiosis between Israel's military-industrial and surveillance complex and the army's elites, and their influence in the state apparatus, is well known.

What does international law say?

Article 6.3 of the international treaty regulating the arms trade prohibits the sale of arms to countries that could use them to commit genocide. Arms purchases are less regulated, but they clearly also contribute to fueling the military-industrial complex, hence the embargo in place against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, the July ruling of the UN International Court of Justice reminds states not to provide assistance or aid that could contribute to Israeli employment. UN rapporteurs and international human rights organizations have warned that the purchase of military equipment from Israeli companies contributes to the actions of the military and to Palestinian employment.

Eduardo Melero points out that "if the Spanish government had agreed to a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, including imports and prohibitions on contracting with Israeli companies and their subsidiaries, these contracts would not have been able to be awarded." What doesn't make sense from a legal perspective, according to Melero, is for a government to say that arms cannot be purchased from companies in a certain country if there is no law justifying their exclusion. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the Ministries of Defense and Interior will not continue to make more purchases. An arms embargo is precisely what more than 600 social organizations across the country have been demanding since the genocide began in Gaza. The Solidarity Network Against Palestinian Employment (RESCOP), which has spearheaded the campaign to end the arms trade with Israel, welcomed the announcement of the termination of the contract for ammunition for the Civil Guard in a statement, but warned that "it is insufficient and that buying weapons in Israel is buying into a security model built on apartheid."