Shir Hever on the Global Arms Trade Fuelling the Genocide in Gaza
We sat down with the renowned economist and researcher Shir Hever. In this conversation, Hever explains how Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been sustained by international complicity – especially from Germany, which remains one of Israel’s most crucial military partners. We recorded on September 30th, 2025, before the current partial ceasefire in Gaza came into effect in October 2025. The full text and video recording are linked below. Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
When Shir Hever speaks about Israel’s arms industry, he does so with decades of experience studying occupation and apartheid.
“I’ve been studying the Israeli occupation and apartheid system for over twenty years,” he says. “My colleagues in joint Palestinian-Israeli organizations asked me a lot of questions about the Israeli arms industry, that’s why I also wrote my PhD on this topic.” Hever explains a special skill enabling his work, “what makes my research possible is that I speak Hebrew. So much information – interviews, reports, even soldiers’ complaints – never reaches foreign audiences.”
Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s bombardment and mass killing of Palestinians has reached an unprecedented scale. Hever describes this shift not only in rhetoric but in weaponry. “Before, the Israeli arms industry specialized in weapons for control and repression – tear gas, surveillance systems and so on. But genocide requires different tools. Now, Israel is importing more weapons for mass extermination.”
The United States remains Israel’s main arms supplier, providing more than 60 percent of its weapons. But Hever emphasizes that Germany has become the second most important source – both directly and through industrial cooperation. Beyond those two, “countries like the UK, Italy, France, and even Serbia and India are supplying components and dual-use materials that keep Israel’s war machine running.”
We asked Hever what he believes smaller suppliers can do to stop Israel’s war machine. He explains that many smaller states have already begun to make a difference, “Some countries stopped exporting explosives and detonators, and suddenly Israeli officers were complaining they had to ration ammunition, that has had a major impact, although it is not enough.” Even a partial embargo can save lives.
Germany’s Hidden Complicity
Germany’s complicity, Hever argues, extends beyond weapons and involves many levels of economic and diplomatic support. But in terms of arms, “Germany provides Israel with every kind of weapon – rifle scopes, warships, drones, artillery,” he says. “Most lethal of all is the 155-millimeter cannon co-developed by Rheinmetall and Israel’s Elbit Systems. Each cannon can fire 500 shells a day, and each shell weighs 45 kilograms. This is the technology enabling the genocide.”
He also highlights the Matador weapon, co-produced by Germany’s Dynamit Nobel, used by Israeli infantry to destroy civilian homes in Gaza. “It’s marketed as an anti-tank weapon, but Israel uses it to collapse apartment buildings.”
Another key example is the Merkava tank, whose engines and transmission systems are manufactured in Germany. “There’s even an Israeli military video showing the tank assembly – every engine block clearly marked ‘MTU,’ a German brand,” Hever says. “There isn’t even a denial about it.”
This collaboration, he explains, is not easily replaced. “These aren’t just blueprints and parts – it’s decades of shared expertise and trust. Germany and Israel have exchanged technology for over fifty years, dating back to the reparations agreements of the 1950s. Every block that we are able to put, every country that says, no, we are not interested n your genocidal weapons and we are not going to collaborate with you, is a blow to the Israeli arms industry both immediately but also in the long term.”
Denial, Empty Gestures, and Legal Loopholes
When asked about what remains unknown, Hever points first to the deliberate lack of transparency. “German authorities are giving different answers to the International Court of Justice, to the media, to their own parliament, and even to workers at the arms companies,” he says. “Someone is lying. And the lie itself is illegal and the people responsible need to be held accountable.”
He explains that the disinformation becomes visible when comparing media in Hebrew, English, and German. “In Hebrew, you’ll find officers bragging about new shells ‘coming from Germany.’ In German media, journalists mostly repeat government lines. And in English, you still find some investigations. Even right-wing outlets in the United States give some factual information about what kinds of bobs the US is giving Israel, how many, and when they were delivered. This cannot be found in Israeli media or German media. This is how we know the truth is being hidden. In Germany you have the additional very serious problem of unquestioning loyalty of journalists to the government.”
“I’m not saying that the Israeli media is particularly accurate and trustworthy, but there are a lot of discussions by Israelis who are not aware of what’s happening in the world. For example, there are testimonies by Israeli soldiers who are talking about the new tank shells coming from Germany. So, this really raises very serious questions.”
In August 2024, the German government announced that it would no longer license new arms exports “that could be used in Gaza.” Some outlets reported this as an arms embargo. Hever disagrees. “It was a Friday announcement – just hours before Israel launched a new offensive in Gaza. And it only applied to future exports, not existing contracts. Germany claimed it couldn’t ‘bend space and time’ to cancel old licenses. But that’s false – Belgium’s Wallonia region already did exactly that, citing international law.”
Germany, he adds, maintains a “fictional distinction” between “weapons of war” and “military equipment.” This allows items like tank engines, radar systems, or dual-use materials – components later found in Israeli rockets – to continue flowing. “Even when a German-made part was photographed in a rocket that hit a refugee camp, neither the company nor the government acknowledged it,” Hever says. “So yes, the statement was symbolic – but symbols can shift public perception, and that matters.”
Many governments now frame their policies as “partial embargoes,” limiting only weapons “used in Gaza.” Hever calls this logic absurd. “Armies work as systems. You can’t separate ‘training weapons’ from those that kill. Israeli soldiers have admitted they’re using German propellants labelled ‘for training only’ to fire real shells into Gaza.”
Hever also points to suppliers outside Western Europe – Serbia, Romania, and India – whose roles are often overlooked. “Serbia even surpassed Germany for a short time as Israel’s second-largest arms supplier,” he notes. “Serbia and Israel have a mutual agreement not to recognize each other’s genocides – Srebrenica and Gaza. It’s a pact of genocidaires.”
India, he adds, is a paradox: millions of people there support Palestine, yet the government continues to sell drones and explosives to Israel. “Our informants in India take great risks to expose these shipments. It shows that in the Global South, solidarity is real – but repression is, too.”
Building International Solidarity
As the former military boycott coordinator for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, Hever sees the current global wave of activism as both tragic and hopeful. “BDS was built to work in stages: grassroots boycotts, civil-society divestment, and finally government sanctions,” he explains. “I thought the military embargo would take decades. But genocide accelerated everything. When law is this clearly violated, people move faster.”
He cites Spain as an example of successful coordination between activists, lawyers, and politicians. “Grassroots organizing, media exposure, and legal work led to real policy change. Even Spain’s prime minister – once pro-Israel – had to call for an EU-wide arms embargo when his coalition partners said, ‘In times of genocide, our political careers don’t matter.’ That’s the power of organized pressure.”
Asked what message he’d leave to readers in Germany, Hever doesn’t hesitate. “You don’t have to be in government to take action. Whoever you are, there’s something that you can do to help stop the weapons. Even if it means just joining a demonstration, because those change public opinion. Eventually, even the very obedient German unions and journalists and dock workers and airport workers will have to see the reality in front of their eyes.”