Slovenia has banned the import, export and transit of weapons to and from Israel, becoming the first European Union member state to do so in a bid to pressure the Israeli government over its war in Gaza.
Palestinians are “dying because humanitarian aid is systematically denied them,” Slovenian Premier Robert Golob said when announcing the move late Thursday, saying that Israel’s actions constitute serious violations of international law.
“It is the duty of every responsible state to take action, even if it means taking a step before others,” said Golob, who has repeatedly called for concrete EU-wide measures against Israel. Those efforts have faltered due to “internal disagreements and disunity,” on the issue in Brussels, he said.
Spain is still buying many Israeli weapons such as the PULS missile system and other stuff. Spain cancelled one rubber bullet contract for the police and I believe they are also banning transport of weapons to Israel in their ports. Spain is mostly doing optics and little in real action when it starts costing money.
Spain is still far better than most of Europe, but Slovenia is the first to take real action and implement a full restriction on arms.
That said, Canada also claimed to stop selling to Israel but did it in secret anyways. But for now Slovenia looks to be the leading country in Europe for human rights.
We’ll see what the ‘full restriction’ looks like under scrutiny. Spain was doing concrete things long before other countries even started mentioning recognizing Palestinian state and lost money on some contracts already (like the 9mm bullets contract, not rubber bullets). It also called what’s going on in Gaza a genocide and called for EU wide embargo on Israel. Just because Slovenia codified something in law doesn’t mean other countries are only doing optics. Unless Slovenia relies on Israeli weapons in a significant way trade ban is also just optics.
Canada is a dog and pony show for sure (Canadian here). Our new PM voted in to challenge all of this is just walking along like nothing is happening in the world. Fuck him too. We need revolution as well.