All of the States' dealings with Israel (even those you wouldn't expect)

Follow Kritica on Google

Add Kritica to your favourite sources.

Follow

The first of July 2025 saw the release of the Report of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese on the ’economy of genocide“, which exposes all the complicities of business with the genocidal and colonial State of Israel, focusing on both the affairs of private companies and those of states with Israel. Some of these latter state collaborations deserve particular attention, as they flagrantly contravene the geopolitical map of alliances and rivalries that most people are accustomed to drawing.

Together with Germany, the’Italy governed by the parties of far-right It is the country that, within the European Union, most strongly opposes the adoption of sanctions against Israel, starting with its opposition to the suspension of the Association Agreement, which grants the Jewish state trade advantages and facilities. In addition to the United States and the main European countries, Israel can count on other governments, many of which are strangely outside the crosshairs of movements promoting the boycott of the’Economy of Israeli war, also asking sanctions economic and commercial.

It is unsurprising that the main buyer of products Made in Israel the United States of America, which – according to 2024 trade balance data – imports goods from Tel Aviv worth over 17 billion dollars. Behind the U.S.A. we find Ireland, the leading European country for imports from Israel, valued at over three billion and two hundred million dollars. Ireland is the largest buyer from Israel of integrated circuits and microassemblies, widely used in the pharmaceutical industry, medical instruments, and hi-tech manufacturing. The suspension of this trade – an intention expressed by the Dublin government – would therefore carry a significance far beyond symbolic.  

Surprisingly – at least for those who continue to divide the world on the basis of the same Cold War camps – immediately behind the USA and Ireland, we find the China, which imports from the Jewish State products worth more than two billion eight hundred million dollars, followed closely, with similar values, by Holland, Germany and India. Further down the list are the United Kingdom and Belgium, France and Italy, the latter with an import volume amounting to just over one billion two hundred million dollars. Overall, Israel is the 31st trading partner of’Oh e represents almost 0.8 per cent of the EU's total merchandise trade in 2024. In the same year, EU imports from Israel reached a value of €15.9 billion.

It should be noted that Chinese imports from Israel should be augmented by over two billion dollars of imports from Hong Kong, which is, for all intents and purposes, Chinese territory. Therefore, it emerges that Beijing is the main importer of goods from Israel after the USA. But that's not all.

If we move from imports from Israel to exports to Israel, we find that the Jewish state's largest supplier is always China, to the tune of over nineteen billion dollars, followed by a long way behind by the USA, whose exports to Tel Aviv amount to just over nine billion four hundred million, less than half of China's. In short, Israel's largest supplier is the leading BRICS country, the People's Republic of China. Another BRICS nation, which does not disdain trade with the state committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, is Brazil, which imports from Israel to the value of over one billion one hundred million dollars, while other members of the club that would represent the alternative to the hated West are excellent suppliers to the Jewish state: Russia, another BRICS pillar, supplies Israel for an amount exceeding two billion three hundred and seventy million dollars, as does India, with over two billion dollars in supplies. Not bad either for two candidates for the “alternative” club: Turkey (over two billion eight hundred and fifty million dollars) and Vietnam (over one billion four hundred million dollars), according to data processed by the UN Comtrade Database on 21 May 2025, also released by Al Jazeera.

*

A particular topic of discussion concerns Russia. As we have seen from the cited report from the UN Comtrade Database, the regime of Vladimir Putin is a major supplier of goods to Israel, while, according to the same report, its imports from Israel itself do not appear to be significant. We need to look beyond the numbers: it is true that Moscow's imports from Tel Aviv do not appear quantitatively relevant, but this is not the case in relation to their quality. An investigation published by The Insider magazine (on April 14th in the Russian edition and April 21st in the English edition)** has illustrated that, while the European Union is bleeding itself dry to sanction Russia as a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine, Israel is providing Putin's regime with high-precision metalworking tools, necessary for the production of advanced weapon systems such as the S-400 surface-to-air missiles and the Sukhoi-35 “Flanker” heavy multirole fighter jets. According to an investigation conducted by The Insider, during 2024, high-precision metalworking tools valued at over 10 million dollars were exported from Israel to Russia. We are talking about tools used for the manufacture of complex components from advanced metal alloys, indispensable for the aerospace and military industries.

In light of the above, some points for reflection are necessary. The first is that, while movements and associations are working hard – rightly so, let's be clear – to promote the boycott of the Israeli war economy in the West, the main players in what some consider an alternative to the imperialist camp are calmly continuing to sustain that same war economy, buying and supplying it with goods and tools without which it would collapse within weeks, not months. The second is that the pervasiveness of Israeli politics is more than tentacles; it can count on established relationships and connections, some opaque, others in the full light of day. In this context, it is not surprising that Israel is allowed to act with absolute impunity and that the root of this impunity lies not only in objective Western acquiescence but also in the equally objective complicity between wrongdoers like Putin and Netanyahu, both wanted by the International Criminal Court. Inter Milan for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

PHOTO CREDITS: Wikimedia Commons