Dealing in genocide: Israel censured over 'South Sudan arms-exports'

Dealing in genocide: Israel censured over 'South Sudan arms-exports'
A group of Israelis submitted a petition the High Court of Justice seeking a criminal investigation into Israel exporting arms to South Sudan on charges of war crimes
2 min read
06 May, 2017
South Sudan Liberation Army [Getty]

A group of Israelis submitted a petition the High Court of Justice seeking a criminal investigation into Israel exporting arms to South Sudan on charges of war crimes, in a call for greater transparency over the Israeli arms trade.

Israeli human rights lawyer Itay Mack filed the petition on behalf of the group of 54 activists on Thursday, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

His campaigning is centred around pursue to uncover what he has referred to as “Israel’s connection with regimes committing crimes against humanity, war crimes and [other] serious violations.”

The submitted petition quotes various reports on the export of Israeli-made Galil ACE rifles to militias of the South Sudanese government.

The militias used the weapons against members of the Nuer tribe from as far back as 2007, which added fuel to a conflict that progressed to a civil war in 2013.

The violence in South Sudan is now genocide that is being perpetrated along tribal lines, said UK officials in April.

UK International Development Secretary Priti Patel said there are “massacres taking place, people’s throats are being slit”, and urged foreign leaders to do more to force the country’s government to end the conflict in which tens of thousands of people have been killed. 

Mack had also filed five requests to the Israeli attorney general to examine the case in 2016, received no formal response.

In October 2016, the UN had condemned Israel for its role in “fuelling the war in South Sudan”.

A confidential report to the UN Security Council was leaked to AFP which exposed “well established networks” of arms suppliers to South Sudanese militias from Israel, along with other Middle Eastern and Eastern European countries.