– Mohammed Atherulla Shariff
Spain has refused a port call to a Danish-flagged merchant vessel carrying “27 tonnes of explosive material from India to Israel” saying the Middle East “requires peace and not more weapons,” multiple reports said.
The Spanish government denied a request for the vessel, Marianne Danica, to call at the port of Cartagena on May 21, Spain’s El Pais newspaper reported. The ship departed from Chennai and was on its way to Haifa in Israel, and it was transporting 26.8 tonnes of explosive materials. The cargo was despatched by the Indian company Siddharta Logistics Co and its recipient is Israel Cargo Logistics (ICL), the report said.
“This will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying arms to Israel that wants to call at Spanish ports. The foreign ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason: The Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace.”
The Spanish government has been very critical of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, which has resulted in the killing of over 35,400 civilians, including thousands of women and children. Spain has also halted arms sales to Israel and lobbied other European countries to recognize a Palestinian state.
Manpower Supply
The Hindu reported, in April, that 6,000 workers from India were to be sent to Israel during April-May. This is the “largest number of foreign workers arriving in Israel for the construction sector in a short time.”
They will be brought to Israel on “air shuttle” following a joint decision by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Finance Ministry and the Construction and Housing Ministry on subsidising charter flights, a statement issued by the Israeli government reportedly said.
“Thanks to the joint financing of the PMO, the Finance Ministry and the Construction and Housing Ministry, it was agreed approximately one week ago on the arrival of over 6,000 workers from India during April and May on an ‘air shuttle’ following the subsidising of charter flights,” it said.
The workers from India are being brought to Israel under a government-to-government (G2G) agreement between to the countries.
Drones Supply
NDTV reported in February last, “In a first, India Delivers Made-In-Hyderabad Hermes Drones to Israel.”
The Hermes 900, a state-of-the-art unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), is currently in active deployment in the intense Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. The facility has successfully supplied more than 20 Hermes 900 medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAVs to Israel, according to Shephard Media. The Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India Ltd, based in Hyderabad, has become the first entity outside of Israel to manufacture the Hermes 900.
- Ramachandran writes in The Wire: The Modi government licensed a shipment in January 2024, the very month the ICJ ruled that “at least some of the acts and omissions alleged … to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the [Genocide] Convention.”
Publicly available records now indicate that Munitions India Ltd (MIL) – a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Defence – has also been permitted to ship its products to Israel as recently as January 2024. On April 18, 2024, the company again applied to export the same products under a repeat order from Israel. Approval for the company’s second export to Israel is under consideration by the licensing authorities.
“The Human Rights Forum (HRF) strongly condemns Adani’s recent agreements with Israel that include the sending of advanced drones with the clear potential to be deployed in aid of the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” the HRF said in a statement issued over the weekend.
“We demand that the Indian government cancel, with immediate effect, all such deals with Israel.”
India has strong defense ties with Israel, as New Delhi is also one of the largest buyers of Israeli military equipment, and reportedly purchased about $2 billion worth of weapons from Tel Aviv over the last decade.
