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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Sixty percent of global drone
exports come from Israel — new data</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2015-03-24T10:22:07+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/rania-khalek"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Rania
Khalek</span> on Tue, 03/24/2015 - 10:22<br>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/sixty-percent-global-drone-exports-come-israel-new-data">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/sixty-percent-global-drone-exports-come-israel-new-data</a></small></small></small></b><br>
</span> </div>
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<p>Drones developed by the Israeli firm Elbit have been
tested in attacks on Gaza’s children. (<a
href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/25802865@N08/6936691265/in/photolist-ejHJ9Z-ejPtbs-byYmDg-akRGRv-akUwm7-7uj6Zz-7zWc93-2ATB5k">Flickr</a>)</p>
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<p>Israel has supplied <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/mar/16/numbers-behind-worldwide-trade-in-drones-uk-israel">60.7
percent</a> of the world’s drones since 1985, according
to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute. </p>
<p>As a result, Israel is the single greatest source of drone
proliferation in the world.</p>
<p>In second place is the United States, which accounts for 23.9
percent of global drone exports, followed by Canada at 6.4
percent, France at 1.6 percent, Austria at 1.4 percent, Italy
at 1.1 percent, Germany at 1 percent and China at 0.9
percent. </p>
<p>Conversely, the United Kingdom is the world’s number one
importer of drones. Between 2010 and 2014, the UK bought 55
drones from Israel and six armed drones from the US, which
accounted for one third of global drone deliveries in that
time period. </p>
<p>The vast majority of the drone market is comprised of
surveillance drones, </p>
<p>The US, UK and Israel are the <a
href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/20238-drone-strike-victims-find-support-from-activists-silence-from-unapologetic-us-leaders">only
countries in the world</a> known to have used armed drones,
deployed exclusively against nonwhite predominantly Muslim
populations in nations and territories that have been pillaged
and destroyed by Western conquest.</p>
<p>The besieged Gaza Strip has served as the leading testing
ground for both armed and surveillance drones.</p>
<h2>Tested on Palestinians</h2>
<p>Over the last decade, Israel’s use of robotic warfare against
Palestinians has escalated dramatically, with each new
military assault on Gaza relying more heavily on drones than
the last.</p>
<p>Last summer, Israel’s 51-day bombing campaign against
Gaza killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, the majority of them
civilians, including more than 500 children. </p>
<p>Based on data collected by the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-mezan-center-human-rights">Al
Mezan Center for Human rights</a>, a <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/corporate-watch">Corporate
Watch</a> investigation found that at least <a
href="http://www.corporatewatch.org/news/2015/feb/20/gaza-life-beneath-drones">37
percent</a> of those killed, or 840 people, died in drone
strikes alone. </p>
<div id="file-30545" class="file file-image file-image-jpeg
media-element file-full" height="543" width="618" style="">
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src="cid:part7.00080506.06040908@freedomarchives.org"
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Corporate Watch chart of drone deaths in Gaza by year. </div>
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<p>Lost in the numbers is the <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/gaza-life-death-under-israel-drones-20131125124214350423.html">psychological
terror</a> inflicted on the people of the Gaza ghetto,
especially children, by the constant presence of drones
buzzing overhead with the capacity to rain death on those
below at any moment. </p>
<p>This has been wildly lucrative for Israeli arms companies,
which exploit Israel’s frequent military assaults as
opportunities to <a
href="http://mondoweiss.net/2014/12/suicide-israeli-manufacturers">expedite
the testing</a> of their products on human subjects. </p>
<p>Easy access to a captive Palestinian population to <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israel-firing-experimental-weapons-gazas-civilians-say-doctors">experiment</a>
on allows Israeli arms producers to market their products as
“combat proven,” a coveted seal of approval that gives Israel
a competitive edge in the international arms trade. Israel’s
repression technology is then <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israels-war-industry-profits-violent-us-immigration-reform/13283">exported</a>
to regimes that are similarly invested in subjugating the poor
and marginalized.</p>
<p>This dystopian arrangement has paved the way for Israel, a
country the size of New Jersey, to rank among the globe’s <a
href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/08/29/344030354/with-home-grown-technology-israel-becomes-leading-arms-exporter?_ga=1.179130916.1832701724.1410929448">top
arms exporters</a>.</p>
<p>A case in point is <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/elbit-systems">Elbit
Systems</a>, Israel’s largest military technology firm,
which produces <a
href="http://www.corporatewatch.org/company-profiles/elbit">85
percent</a> of the drones that make up the Israeli army’s
vast arsenal.</p>
<p>The Hermes 900, a drone manufactured by Elbit, was <a
href="http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140812/DEFREG04/308120026/Israeli-Forces-Praise-Elbit-UAVs-Gaza-Op">deployed
operationally for the first time</a> against Palestinians in
Gaza last summer, even though it was <a
href="http://www.iaf.org.il/4410-42217-en/IAF.aspx">still
undergoing testing</a>. Nicknamed the <em>Kochav</em>
— which is Hebrew for “star” — the Hermes 900’s blood-soaked
performance garnered widespread praise at <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israeli-drone-conference-features-weapons-used-kill-gazas-children">Israel’s
annual drone conference</a>, held less than a month after
the Gaza slaughter.</p>
<p>The Hermes 900 is a more advanced version of the Hermes 450,
an aerial attack and surveillance drone that was used by the
Israeli army to deliberately target civilians in Gaza during
Israel’s previous onslaught in late 2008 and early 2009, <a
href="http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iopt0609webwcover_0.pdf">according
to Human Rights Watch</a>. </p>
<p>The Hermes drone was also used to <a
href="http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/Elbit-fc.pdf">kill
civilians in Israel’s attack on Lebanon in 2006</a>,
including Red Cross workers, ambulance drivers and dozens of
people fleeing their homes in a desperate search for safety
from Israeli bombardment. </p>
<p>Marketed in the <a
href="http://62.0.44.103/Elbitmain/files/Hermes_450_%282012%29.pdf">company
brochure</a> as “combat-proven” and “Fighting terror for
over a decade,” the Hermes 450 boasts “a class-leading safety
and reliability record.”</p>
<p>Apparently impressed by the aircraft’s capacity for
bloodshed, the Brazilian government purchased a fleet of
Hermes drones to <a
href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/180465/exporting-gaza-arming-brazils-world-cup-security#">help
crush</a> the massive protests that erupted across Brazil
against the 2014 World Cup. </p>
<p>Thales UK — a subsidiary of the French company, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/thales">Thales</a>,
which is ranked as the <a
href="http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/production/recent-trends-in-arms-industry">eleventh
largest arms producer</a> in the world — signed a <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/new-uk-drones-field-tested-captive-palestinians">$1.6
billion</a> joint venture with Elbit Systems in 2011 to
develop a new drone fleet called Watchkeeper for the British
military. </p>
<p>The Watchkeeper is being modeled on the Hermes 450, which has
been deployed by the British army <a
href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hermes-450-reaches-70000-hours-in-afghanistan">in
Afghanistan</a>.</p>
<p>Elbit might be Israel’s largest drone producer, but it’s
hardly the only Israeli company selling equipment tested on
Palestinians to regimes around the world. </p>
<p>According to an investigation by Drones UK, Israel has
exported drone technology to <a
href="https://dronewarsuk.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/israel-and-the-drone-wars.pdf">at
least fifty different countries</a>, enabling atrocities and
fueling war. </p>
<p>With America’s blessing, Israel <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-advises-sri-lanka-slow-motion-genocide/12644">sold
drones and fighter jets to Sri Lanka</a>, which were used to
commit atrocities against Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority. </p>
<p>South Korea recently <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jimmy-johnson/south-korea-buy-israeli-drones-used-attacks-gaza-and-lebanon">purchased</a> the
Heron drone, which is produced by <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israel-aerospace-industries">Israel
Aerospace Industries</a> and has been deployed for
surveillance and target acquisition in Israeli attacks on
Lebanon and Gaza.</p>
<p>In addition to helping crush World Cup protests, Israeli
drones have been used by Brazilian police to <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/business/1.598359">invade the
nation’s <em>favelas</em></a>. </p>
<p>In certain instances, Israel has sold drones to both sides in
a given conflict. Both <a
href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/121022/russia-georgia-drones-little-war">Russia
and Georgia</a> — between whom a conflict took place in 2008
— were armed with Israeli drones. <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/21/turkey.israeli.surveillance/">Turkey</a> and the <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/PKK-using-Israeli-drones-to-attack-Turkish-troops">Kurdistan
Workers Party</a> (PKK) have reportedly both used Israeli
drones. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israel’s drone exports to India have provoked a
drone “arms race” with neighboring Pakistan, according to the
organization Drones UK.</p>
<h2>Israel invented drones</h2>
<p>Israel was <a
href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political-insider/israels-pioneering-drones-led-way-us">instrumental</a>
in pioneering the modern drone due largely to the ideology at
its core.</p>
<p>Israel’s creation as a majority Jewish state was precipitated
by the pre-meditated ethnic cleansing of 750,000 indigenous
Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1948 — which Palestinians
refer to as the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba">Nakba</a>,
or catastrophe. Israel has spent every day since then
consolidating and expanding its Jewish majority in historic
Palestine, which has required tremendous levels of violence,
including the ongoing containment and exclusion of the native
Palestinian inhabitants still under its control. </p>
<p>The Israeli economy has been built around advancing this
goal, giving rise to a booming “homeland security” industry
that caters to the designs of Zionism and then repackages
occupation-style repression for export and profit. </p>
<p>Drone technology has been crucial to this endeavor. </p>
<p>After suffering heavy losses in its 1973 war with Egypt, the
Israeli regime, for the first time in its existence, was met
with <a
href="https://books.google.com/books?id=g1TkFQgzp5cC&lpg=PA177&dq=the%20domestic%20fallout%20of%20the%20yom%20kippur%20war&pg=PA177#v=onepage&q=the%20domestic%20fallout%20of%20the%20yom%20kippur%20war&f=false">backlash</a>
from an Israeli Jewish public unaccustomed to high soldier
casualties. </p>
<p>It was in the aftermath of the 1973 war that the Israeli
government <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jimmy-johnson/israels-deadly-drones-have-origins-sinai-occupation">began
investing</a> heavily in drone technology, minimizing the
risk to its soldiers, effectively pacifying future opposition
to endless war, expansion and conquest.</p>
<p>Israel Aerospace Industries, known as Israel Aircraft
Industries at the time, and the Israeli company Tadiran were
tasked with designing drones for real-time <a
href="http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=901">intelligence
collection in the occupied Sinai</a>. </p>
<p>Soon enough, IAI invented the Scout drone, which was <a
href="https://dronewarsuk.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/israel-and-the-drone-wars.pdf">deployed
in 1982</a> to coordinate targeting during Israel’s deadly
invasion of Lebanon. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Israel
tested and refined a variety of drones on the people of
southern Lebanon in an attempt to crush armed resistance to
its occupation. With each operation came another wave of
advancements in drone technology.</p>
<p>With the start of the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/second-intifada">second
intifada</a> and Israel’s forced withdraw from southern
Lebanon in 2000, the occupied West Bank and Gaza became
Israel’s primary testing grounds for drone warfare. </p>
<p>Israeli drones provided hidden attack helicopters with <a
href="http://aviationweek.com/awin/israel-s-long-reach-exploits-unmanned-aircraft">coordinates
to fire on</a> during Israel’s ruthless 2002 attack on the
Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. As early as <a
href="http://www.angelfire.com/pop2/israel1/2004/Israel_2004_10-26-0B.html">2004</a>,
Israeli drones were raining down missiles on the Gaza Strip
in targeted assassinations of Palestinians fighters. </p>
<p>Though the US started utilizing and investing in drone
technology before Israel, Israel was always one step ahead. </p>
<p>It’s no coincidence that <a
href="http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/the-man-who-invented-the-predator-3970502/?all">Abraham
Karem</a>, an Israeli citizen, designed the Predator drone,
which has been deployed by the US military and the CIA to
carry out targeted assassinations that have left <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147">hundreds
of innocent people dead</a>. The Iraqi-born Karem received a
degree in aeronautical engineering at the Haifa-based Israel
Institute of Technology — better known as the Technion — and
got his start at IAI before immigrating to the US after he was
blackballed by the Israeli government for starting his own
drone company. </p>
<p>Today, Gaza is surrounded with Israeli drones by air, land
and sea. </p>
<p>In addition to the surveillance drones that hover overhead,
the walls of the Gaza cage will soon be reinforced by <a
href="http://http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/IDF-expects-UGVs-robots-to-play-ever-greater-roles-in-combat-391365">Border
Patroller</a>, an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), or land
drone, armed with remote-controlled weapons. Designed by the
Israeli company G-NIUS, a joint venture between Elbit Systems
and IAI, the Border Patroller, like the walls it fortifies,
will prevent the Palestinian refugees of Gaza from escaping
their cage.</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4381876,00.html">The
Protector</a>, produced by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense
Systems, is an unmanned sea vehicle (USV), or boat drone, that
roams Gaza’s coast to obstruct Palestinian fishermen from
making a living. </p>
<p>If the proliferation of Israel’s aerial drones is any
indication, it won’t be long before land and sea drones spread
to all corners of the globe. </p>
<p>As long as Israel’s economy is shaped by the subjugation and
elimination of Palestinians, it will continue to function as a
factory for cutting-edge repression technology that sustains
racism and inequality around the globe. </p>
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