Around a hundred left-wing parliamentarians wrote to Emmanuel Macron on Friday to ask him to “immediately stop all arms sales, even those deemed solely defensive, to Netanyahu’s far-right government.” “It seems important to remember that similar measures have already been taken by other countries, such as Canada, the Netherlands and Spain,” estimate these 115 deputies and senators.
Parliamentarians rely on surveys from investigative sites
“France is in contradiction with the international treaties it has signed by continuing to provide military equipment to Israel,” they argue, calling on Emmanuel Macron “not to risk making France complicit in genocide against the Palestinian people.” “. These parliamentarians rely on investigations by the investigative sites Disclose and Marsactu, according to which “France authorized, at the end of October 2023, the delivery to Israel of at least 100,000 pieces of cartridges for machine guns likely to be used against civilians in Gaza.
The license allowing the sale of these parts, which would have been sent by the company Eurolinks to the Israeli group IMI Systems from the port of Marseille, “only concerns re-export to third countries”, affirmed Sébastien Lecornu last week. At the same time as this letter was published Friday morning, the UN Human Rights Council demanded a halt to all arms sales to Israel at war with Hamas in Gaza, in a resolution citing fears of “genocide” against the Palestinians.
The war was triggered by the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 in southern Israel, which led to the death of 1,170 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures. The military operation carried out by Israel in Gaza in retaliation left more than 33,000 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.