{"id":4005,"date":"2025-10-31T12:24:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gn-stat.org\/?p=4005"},"modified":"2025-11-25T15:59:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:59:28","slug":"a-pact-of-genocidaires-interview-with-shir-hever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gn-stat.org\/?p=4005","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA Pact of Genocidaires\u201d – Interview with Shir Hever"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Shir Hever on the Global Arms Trade Fuelling the Genocide in Gaza<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We sat down with the renowned economist and researcher Shir Hever. In this conversation, Hever explains how Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza has been sustained by international complicity – especially from Germany, which remains one of Israel\u2019s most crucial military partners. We recorded on September 30th<\/sup>, 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.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Updates<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Shir would like to draw additional attention to the following ressources:<\/p>

„Polish company accused of supplying explosives for Israel\u2019s war on Gaza“<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>

„Jet fighter maintenance parts, bombs shipped to Israel via U.S., groups say in new report“<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFull Interview (PDF)<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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When Shir Hever speaks about Israel\u2019s arms industry, he does so with decades of experience studying occupation and apartheid.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ve been studying the Israeli occupation and apartheid system for over twenty years,\u201d he says. \u201cMy colleagues in joint Palestinian-Israeli organizations asked me a lot of questions about the Israeli arms industry, that\u2019s why I also wrote my PhD on this topic.\u201d Hever explains a special skill enabling his work, \u201cwhat makes my research possible is that I speak Hebrew. So much information – interviews, reports, even soldiers\u2019 complaints – never reaches foreign audiences.\u201d<\/p>

Since October 7, 2023, Israel\u2019s bombardment and mass killing of Palestinians has reached an unprecedented scale. Hever describes this shift not only in rhetoric but in weaponry. \u201cBefore, 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.\u201d<\/p>

The United States remains Israel\u2019s 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, \u201ccountries like the UK, Italy, France, and even Serbia and India are supplying components and dual-use materials that keep Israel\u2019s war machine running.\u201d<\/p>

We asked Hever what he believes smaller suppliers can do to stop Israel\u2019s war machine. He explains that many smaller states have already begun to make a difference, \u201cSome 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.\u201d Even a partial embargo can save lives.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Germany\u2019s Hidden Complicity<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Germany\u2019s complicity, Hever argues, extends beyond weapons and involves many levels of economic and diplomatic support. But in terms of arms, \u201cGermany provides Israel with every kind of weapon – rifle scopes, warships, drones, artillery,\u201d he says. \u201cMost lethal of all is the 155-millimeter cannon co-developed by Rheinmetall and Israel\u2019s Elbit Systems. Each cannon can fire 500 shells a day, and each shell weighs 45 kilograms. This is the technology enabling the genocide.\u201d<\/p>

He also highlights the Matador weapon, co-produced by Germany\u2019s Dynamit Nobel, used by Israeli infantry to destroy civilian homes in Gaza. \u201cIt\u2019s marketed as an anti-tank weapon, but Israel uses it to collapse apartment buildings.\u201d<\/p>

Another key example is the Merkava tank, whose engines and transmission systems are manufactured in Germany. \u201cThere\u2019s even an Israeli military video showing the tank assembly – every engine block clearly marked \u2018MTU,\u2019 a German brand,\u201d Hever says. \u201cThere isn\u2019t even a denial about it.\u201d<\/p>

This collaboration, he explains, is not easily replaced. \u201cThese aren\u2019t just blueprints and parts – it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Denial, Empty Gestures, and Legal Loopholes<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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When asked about what remains unknown, Hever points first to the deliberate lack of transparency. \u201cGerman 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,\u201d he says. \u201cSomeone is lying. And the lie itself is illegal and the people responsible need to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>

He explains that the disinformation becomes visible when comparing media in Hebrew, English, and German. \u201cIn Hebrew, you\u2019ll find officers bragging about new shells \u2018coming from Germany.\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI’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.\u201d<\/p>

In August 2024, the German government announced that it would no longer license new arms exports \u201cthat could be used in Gaza.\u201d Some outlets reported this as an arms embargo. Hever disagrees. \u201cIt 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\u2019t \u2018bend space and time\u2019 to cancel old licenses. But that\u2019s false – Belgium\u2019s Wallonia region already did exactly that, citing international law.\u201d<\/p>

Germany, he adds, maintains a \u201cfictional distinction\u201d between \u201cweapons of war\u201d and \u201cmilitary equipment.\u201d This allows items like tank engines, radar systems, or dual-use materials – components later found in Israeli rockets – to continue flowing. \u201cEven when a German-made part was photographed in a rocket that hit a refugee camp, neither the company nor the government acknowledged it,\u201d Hever says. \u201cSo yes, the statement was symbolic – but symbols can shift public perception, and that matters.\u201d<\/p>

Many governments now frame their policies as \u201cpartial embargoes,\u201d limiting only weapons \u201cused in Gaza.\u201d Hever calls this logic absurd. \u201cArmies work as systems. You can\u2019t separate \u2018training weapons\u2019 from those that kill. Israeli soldiers have admitted they\u2019re using German propellants labelled \u2018for training only\u2019 to fire real shells into Gaza.\u201d<\/p>

Hever also points to suppliers outside Western Europe – Serbia, Romania, and India – whose roles are often overlooked. \u201cSerbia even surpassed Germany for a short time as Israel\u2019s second-largest arms supplier,\u201d he notes. \u201cSerbia and Israel have a mutual agreement not to recognize each other\u2019s genocides – Srebrenica and Gaza. It\u2019s a pact of genocidaires.\u201d<\/p>

India, he adds, is a paradox: millions of people there support Palestine, yet the government continues to sell drones and explosives to Israel. \u201cOur informants in India take great risks to expose these shipments. It shows that in the Global South, solidarity is real – but repression is, too.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Building International Solidarity<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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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. \u201cBDS was built to work in stages: grassroots boycotts, civil-society divestment, and finally government sanctions,\u201d he explains. \u201cI thought the military embargo would take decades. But genocide accelerated everything. When law is this clearly violated, people move faster.\u201d<\/p>

He cites Spain as an example of successful coordination between activists, lawyers, and politicians. \u201cGrassroots organizing, media exposure, and legal work led to real policy change. Even Spain\u2019s prime minister – once pro-Israel – had to call for an EU-wide arms embargo when his coalition partners said, \u2018In times of genocide, our political careers don\u2019t matter.\u2019 That\u2019s the power of organized pressure.\u201d<\/p>

Asked what message he\u2019d leave to readers in Germany, Hever doesn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be in government to take action. Whoever you are, there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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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\u2019s genocide in Gaza has been sustained by international complicity – especially from Germany, which remains one of Israel\u2019s most crucial military partners. We recorded on 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