The United Arab Emirates’ permission to Israeli arms firms to participate in the Maritime Defence and Security Exhibition NAVDEX 2025 and the International Defence Exhibition IDEX symbolizes direct approval for the Israeli military industry and war apparatus. The Israeli firm’s products have been utilized to perpetrate offenses against humanity and war offenses that have massacred 10s of thousands of innocent individuals in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Facilitating these businesses and letting their participation in such significant exhibitions—both of which have been occurring in the capital of Abu Dhabi and end on 21 February—at the height of Israel’s breaches of the laws of war cannot be considered as an unbiased business conclusion. Rather, the action is a straightforward facilitation and implied approval for a military system employed in serious violations of international law.
Several well-known Israeli arms groups participated in the Israeli pavilion at the two defense shows in UAE. These include the company RT LTA Systems, the Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI), the Heven Drones company and the EMTAN arms manufacturing company. These companies have been essential in supplying the Israeli occupation troops with the weapons it required to attack civilians.
Since these firms are among the direct providers of arms to the Israeli army, the UAE is well conscious of their engagement in Israeli offenses. In reality, these companies have always publicly bragged about using their technology in military procedures that implicate bombing densely inhabited civilian areas.
Amidst increasing international calls to boycott businesses implicated in human rights infringements, the UAE’s hosting of Israeli arms businesses that directly assist with breaches in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip via defense exhibitions and other standards breaks the principle of international commitment of states for internationally unlawful actions. It also eternalizes the cycle of impunity wanted by Israel and hinders actions to bring victims justice.
Israeli weapons have been employed in raids that comprise grave violations of international law and are full-fledged international offenses, such as the implementation of massacres against civilians, according to international reports, including statements from United Nations organizations. Thus, providing these businesses a forum in the UAE relieves their capacity to develop economically, which in turn promotes and supports crimes against civilians in the region, especially Palestinian and Lebanese individuals.
Authorizing Israeli firms to sell arms that have been established to be utilized in severe offenses at a time when stress from around the world is expanding to hold these firms accountable not only supports immunity but also indicates a dangerous dichotomy in the way human rights regulations are applied to different peoples. While letting the Israeli military industry grow its impact and profit from offenses against Palestinians and Lebanese individuals, complicit nations present themselves as advocates of international law and civilian security. Observers stress that these states’ adherence to human rights regulations is damaged by this apparent contradiction, which also reveals the glaring inconsistency in how these principles are used.
The global community needs to respond swiftly to stop the import and export of arms from businesses and all players involved in these significant violations of international humanitarian law. Independent examinations need to be launched instantly into Israeli firms’ involvement in offenses against Lebanese people and Palestinians.
All appropriate entities worldwide must meet their legal and moral responsibilities by levying sanctions on Israeli weapons firms, ceasing collaboration with them, and ensuring that all nations, including the United Arab Emirates, stick to international human rights norms in their arms trading.