Only nine days after Canada’s House of Representatives decided to stop defense exports to Israel due to fears of human rights violations in the Gaza Strip, the local Defense Industries Association admits that it is very confused by the multiple messages of the decision compared to the statements of the administration in Ottawa.
Now, the latter demand clarifications from the administration, because for them Israel is a significant export destination: according to Canadian government data, in 2022 Israel was the main export destination of the Canadian defense industry, after the USA. “In order for companies to be able to comply with the legal changes, they need to know what the changes are “, the president of the Defense Industries Association of Canada, Christine Gianferrani, told the Defense News Agency. “The government has the responsibility to quickly publish the exact details about any change in the export policy.”
The fear: more countries will join Canada
In 2022, 315 export permits were issued from Canada to Israel for defense products and technologies, according to official figures from the government in Ottawa. In terms of value, those approvals amounted to goods with an annual volume of about 21 million Canadian dollars (about 15 million American dollars).
Moreover, in Canada it is reported that in the first two months of the Iron Swords War, the scope of defense exports from Canada amounted to about 28.5 million Canadian dollars (about 20.96 million American dollars). That is, in the months of October-December, Israel imported more defense products from Canada than in the entire year of 2022.
In Jerusalem, they were quick to condemn the Canadian decision, apparently for fear of a drift that would affect countries that are much more important for defense imports. The Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Taiani, said in January that his country decided to stop defense exports to Israel already in October. This, despite the fact that the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Maloney, is considered close to her counterpart in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the Pagia Politika news site, defense exports from Italy to Israel amounted to approximately 130 million dollars between 2013-2022, and include parts of training and combat aircraft, according to SIPRI.
In Israel, they mainly look to the USA
The bulk of Israel’s defense imports come from the United States, with its annual aid package to Jerusalem amounting to $3.3 billion. This does not include the fixed half a billion dollars a year for joint developments in the field of air defense and the additional immediate aid package approved by Congress this week amounting to an additional $3.3 billion. According to data SIPRI, between the years 2019-2023, 70.2% of Israeli defense imports came from the USA, 23.9% from Germany, 5.9% from Italy and, as mentioned, 0.05% from Canada.
A big question mark concerns not only the United States and Netanyahu’s relationship with the American president, Joe Biden, which is in an unprecedented crisis, but also Germany. According to a report on the German ARD channel, the war of iron swords led to a jump in the scope of the defense purchases made by Israel from Germany to about -$350.97 million – a number ten times greater than the amount in 2022. Chancellor Olaf Schulz has expressed his concern more than once about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, although for the time being no real steps have been taken in Berlin against Israel.
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