Belgium seizes arms shipment sent from Britain to Israel
A petition calling on the UK government to halt arms exports to Israel was handed in at 10 Downing Street, 16 April 2024
Imran Mulla reports in Middle East Eye on 15 April 2026:
Two shipments from Britain of military components bound for Israel have been seized in Belgium, which has banned aircraft carrying military equipment for Israel from stopping in the country or using its airspace.
Last month, the British news website Declassified, Belgian NGO Vredesactie, Irish news website The Ditch, and the Palestinian Youth Movement alerted authorities in Brussels of a shipment travelling from Britain to Israel through Liege airport.
The consignments left Britain on 23 March and were siezed at Liege airport in Belgium on 24 March. They were searched by a specialised engineer who found “fire control systems and spare parts for military aircraft”, which had not been properly declared.
Belgian authorities reportedly opened a criminal investigation into the affair but have declined to name the firms involved in the complaint.
But the Walloon regional government in southern Belgium named one of the companies as Moog, an American aerospace firm with factories in Britain. According to Declassified, a “postcode associated with the company’s factory in Wolverhampton” sent items to Israel through Belgium last December. Moog manufactures actuators for the M-346 aircraft used to train Israeli pilots.
Regular transfers from UK to Israel
Sources involved with the tracking process said they found that the components were exported from the UK under an Open Individual Export Licence, and that they were classified as aircraft and related components, rather than as military components.
They also found that at least 17 consignments from Moog have been moved from the UK to Liege Airport, bound for Israel.