Europe Discusses Boycotting Israel – While Rushing to Buy More Israeli Weapons
 
Defense exports are becoming increasingly important for Israel's economy, and some observers believe that 2025 will be another bumper year, despite the images from Gaza, as Europe defends against Russia
 
Europeans are increasingly calling for boycotts of Israel as the Gaza war rages on, but this wasn't seen in arms sales last year, when countries on the Continent bought weapons to counteract the Russia threat and helped send Israeli defense exports up 13 percent to a record $14.8 billion.
 
It was a record for the fourth straight year; last year, overall Israeli exports fell 5.6 percent. On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry published Israel's defense-export figures for 2024, which were based on voluntary reports by companies in the sector.
 
"Israeli systems made waves in the past year throughout the Middle East," Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram said. "More countries want to protect their citizens using Israeli weapons."
 
Since 2019, Israeli defense exports have doubled in value, beating the increase in military spending worldwide, which rose 9.4 percent last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Israeli goods exports last year came in at 223.6 billion shekels ($64 billion); including services exports, the figure is 569 billion shekels, so last year's 52 billion shekels in defense exports make up nearly 10 percent of all Israeli exports and a quarter of goods exports.
 
Last year, the main increase among weapons sectors took place in air defense, missiles and rockets, which accounted for 48 percent of Israeli defense exports.
Last year, Europe was the destination of 54 percent of Israeli defense exports, compared with 35 percent in 2023, as Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to end his war on Ukraine and European militaries acquired arms.
 
U.S. President Donald Trump's declarations that he's not keen to finance the defense of Europe will only be seen in 2025's reports. Last year, Israeli defense exports to Europe surged to $8 billion from $4.6 billion the previous year.
 
[...]
 
Last year, the main increase among weapons sectors took place in air defense, missiles and rockets, which accounted for 48 percent of Israeli defense exports.
This shows that European countries are carefully watching the drone war between Russia and Ukraine, and were impressed by Israel's air defense against Iranian attacks last year.
Air defense systems are particularly expensive, thus 56.7 percent of Israeli export transactions totaled a minimum of $100 million each. Also, defense systems don't stir the same ethical debate as do offensive weapons, so Arrow, David's Sling and Iron Dome anti-missile systems are getting snapped up.
 
[...]
 
Some observers believe that demand will only rise. "In 2025, due to the escalation between India and Pakistan, we're likely to see an increase in transactions with India," said attorney Eitay Mack, who has tracked Israeli defense exports for years.
 
"In addition, only in 2025 will the effect of the huge budgets being channeled to Europe's defense – due to the change in its relations with the United States – become apparent.
"On the other hand, some countries might want to improve their trade balance with the United States because of Trump's tariff war and buy arms from it instead of Israel. So 2025 should be more interesting than 2024."

Le président français Emmanuel Macron a déclaré au Palais de l'Élysée : "Nous déciderons dans les prochains jours si nous devons durcir le ton et prendre des mesures concrètes concernant Israël".

L'Université de Genève (UNIGE) a annoncé mardi mettre fin à son partenariat stratégique avec l'Université hébraïque de Jérusalem, sans pour autant invoquer des raisons politiques. La réunion où cette position devait être communiquée a été annulée à cause de la présence d'étudiants pro-palestiniens.
 
L'Université de Genève devait présenter mardi un rapport sur son rôle dans le débat public, notamment sur la politique israélienne à Gaza. La prise de position était très attendue, mais elle le rectorat l'a insérée presque incognito dans une présentation du rapport annuel de gestion de l'Université.

L’Université exprime toutefois son indignation face à la "situation humanitaire" à Gaza. Elle dénonce le partenariat stratégique avec l'Université hébraïque de Jérusalem. Invitée dans Forum, la réctrice de l'UNIGE Audrey Leuba réfute toute décision politique.
 
"Nous avons choisi d'interroger un groupe d'experts en comité scientifique sur la question du positionnement des universités dans le débat public. Nous l'avons fait, à l'instar d'autres d'autres académies et d'autres universités renommées. S'agissant de l'Université de Jérusalem, elle s'inscrit dans cette démarche."

The article failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by The Post. The article and headline were updated on Sunday evening making it clear that there was no consensus about who was responsible for the shootings and that there was a dispute over that question.

While statements from Israel that it was unaware of injuries and that an initial inquiry indicated its soldiers didn’t fire at civilians near the site were included in all versions, The Post didn’t give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings. The early versions fell short of Post standards of fairness and should not have been published in that form.

"The claim the BBC took down a story after reviewing footage is completely wrong. We did not remove any story and we stand by our journalism.

"Our news stories and headlines about Sunday's aid distribution centre incident were updated throughout the day with the latest fatality figures as they came in from various sources. These were always clearly attributed, from the first figure of 15 from medics, through the 31 killed from the Hamas-run health ministry to the final Red Cross statement of ‘at least 21’ at their field hospital. This is totally normal practice on any fast-moving news story.

"Completely separately, a BBC Verify online report on Monday reported a viral video posted on social media was not linked to the aid distribution centre it claimed to show. This video did not run on BBC news channels and had not informed our reporting. Conflating these two stories is simply misleading.

"It is vital to bring people the truth about what is happening in Gaza. International journalists are not currently allowed into Gaza and we would welcome the support of the White House in our call for immediate access."

Frontex vient de passer récupérer les 4 personnes que nous avons secourues.

New recordings reveal Hamas fired on Gaza aid hub to steal supplies
 
In conversation with IDF officer, Gaza residents say terror group fired mortars on center in Rafah; testimonies challenge claims of Israeli fire and highlight growing efforts to block independent humanitarian aid