France’s Arms Exports to Israel Draw CGT Call to Halt Military Deliveries

The French trade union CGT has called on France to immediately stop all military deliveries to Israel, according to a press statement published on its website. The statement says new revelations contradict repeated claims by the French government that it does not sell weapons to Israel, or that it delivers only “defensive” equipment that is supposed not to be used in the Gaza Strip.

According to the CGT, the data in the report it cites show that exports have never stopped, and that they concern equipment whose nature cannot be reduced to strictly defensive use. The statement also cites earlier investigations, particularly those by Disclose, which it says have already established the presence of components of French origin in weapons used on the ground in Gaza. Testing official assurances against documented evidence is part of telling the truth fairly (Proverbs 18:17).

The CGT argues that continuing these deliveries raises major questions of responsibility, and that such equipment may have been involved in serious violations of international law. Describing the context, the statement refers to genocide, successive apartheid laws, forced displacement, dispossession of land and the rights of Palestinian women. In the CGT’s view, continuing to supply military equipment amounts to complicity in the crimes committed and a deadly escalation.

The statement says France is bound by its international commitments and by its own obligations to control arms exports, which it says must be respected without ambiguity. It also says the French government must regularly provide precise information on the nature of its exports to various international bodies, to French Members of Parliament and to civil society. The CGT says there is a degree of opacity and repeated breaches, and that “the French State’s responsibility is directly committed.” It states that closing the eyes or procrastination would be tantamount to condoning the unacceptable.

The CGT notes that France is one of the world’s top three arms exporters and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which it says raises the level of demand placed on Paris. The statement also recalls that France has officially recognised the State of Palestine, and it asserts that by continuing its arms exports to Israel, France intentionally weakens that recognition and compromises the prospects for a political solution.

For the CGT, only a policy consistent with international law will pave the way for a just and lasting peace in the region.

Source: Read the original report (translated from French)