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South Korean activists demand arms embargo on Israel

An anti-tank missile is fired during an exercise at the Defense Expo Korea on Sept. 20th 2022. South Korea exports tanks, howitzers and other conventional weaponry to Israel. (Photo by Reuters)

With their 'die-in' mimicking the Israeli bombing of Gaza, South Korean peace campaigners on the Global Day of Action demanded the country stop sending arms that fuel Israel's genocide.

They assert that South Korea’s tens of millions of dollars in arms trade with Israel must end, and that Hyundai must stop selling equipment to Israel which will certainly be used to demolish Palestinian homes for Israeli settlement. 

South Korea has seen its weapons trade with Israel grow significantly over the past decade.

South Korea has sold weapons worth $47 million to Israel over the past 10 years; exports increased year by year.

Jang Hye-Young, South Korean Lawmaker

South Korea's arms exports to Israel carried on despite Israel's fully documented massacres of civilians.

Even when the Israeli military strikes refugee camps and destroy hospitals, and, even when the International Court of Justice determines that the Israeli military is committing genocide in Gaza, arms exports continue.

Jang Hye-Young, South Korean Lawmaker

Last February, South Korea amended a law doubling the financing available for arms exports.

With Israel's genocide in Gaza sending arms to Israel is banned under international convention.

South Korea is a party, and the US a signatory, to the global arms trade treaty, which quite clearly prohibits the export of arms by any party to the treaty if it is known that those weapons will be used to commit genocide, war crimes, or, attacks on civilians.

Despite various international agreements related to the arms trade, enforcement is sadly lacking.

On April 5, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution to stop arms exports to Israel but because it's nonbinding, no decision to suspend exports has actually been made official ... now our voices are being heard more in such mass movements and UN resolutions.

Za’ah, Amnesty International Korea

Activists have been documenting Israel's genocidal war crimes from the onset.

Current estimates suggest thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed by Israel and the weapons it imports from the US, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and elsewhere.

 


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