Arms sales to Israel are slowing. But that’s only half the story
Sahar Vardi reports in +972 on 19 August 2026:
In recent years, more and more governments have begun to recognize that words alone will not hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinians. One of the clearest responses to this realization has been a growing push to restrict military trade with Israel — a demand that has also been a central slogan of pro-Palestine protests around the world.
Images of bombs bearing U.S. serial numbers, German-made tank engines, and European-manufactured components recovered from the sites of massacres of Palestinian men women and children have mobilized people to demand their governments end their own complicity in Israel’s military campaigns. And those efforts have begun to bear fruit.
Since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza in October 2023, two dozen countries have announced plans to halt or restrict arms transfers to the occupying power. In the past year alone, even amid the so-called ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2025, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines have canceled deals with Israeli weapons companies.
Yet while international scrutiny has largely focused on the foreign companies and governments supplying Israel with arms, far less attention has been paid to the flow of weapons in the opposite direction: Israel’s own military exports. Over the same period, the country’s defense industry has greatly expanded its sales abroad, generating billions of dollars in revenue for Israeli companies — and, crucially, for the state itself.