Instead of being boycotted, Israel, in the midst of genocide, sold more weapons to Arabs in 2025 than to the U.S. Europe was the biggest purchaser, per Israel’s MoD, and India bought more Israeli arms than any single nation.
Israeli Ministry of Defense headquarters in Tel Aviv. (Justin LaBerge, Flickr, CC BY 2.0)
By Robert Inlakesh
MintPress News
Newly released data, published by the International Defense Cooperation (SIBAT) of Tel Aviv’s Ministry of Defense, revealed that arms exports for the year 2025 amounted to $19.2 Billion — an all-time record and 30 percent more than in 2024.
This means Israel rakes in record earnings for the fifth consecutive year while it profits from battle-testing weapons on civilian populations in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. While openly adopting a quasi-critical approach to Israel’s military actions, it’s the same European and Muslim-majority countries that are fueling Israeli weapons exports.
Calls for boycotts, direct action against arms manufacturers and campaigns to bar Israeli weapons companies from arms fairs has proven unsuccessful in the face of governments’ willingness to purchase Israel’s weaponry.
That represents a more than 30 percent increase in profits from the year 2024, in the export of Israeli weapons, in addition to it being the fifth consecutive record-setting year. The uptick in sales have coincided with two major developments, the first being the defence cooperation with Arab and Muslim-majority nations following the signing of the “Abraham Accords” normalisation agreements, the second is the marketing of its technology following the initiation of the Gaza genocide.
While the United States is considered Israel’s closest international partner, Israel sold more weapons to its Arab allies in 2025 than it had to the Americans, representing a major shift. North America accounted for 13 percent of Israel’s arms exports, while the Middle East and North Africa accounted for $2.9 billion or 15 percent; a percentage that is anticipated to rise this year.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has, for example, this year established a fund with Israel to jointly acquire and develop new weapons systems. Abu Dhabi also notably carried out coordinated military operations with Tel Aviv against Iran, earlier this year and has integrated its air defence systems with its Israeli partners.
Immediately following the signing of the 2020 “Abraham Accords,” Israeli arms export profits ballooned to record highs of $11.3 billion in 2021 and $12.5 billion in 2022, a significant portion of which was attributed to sales made to its new Arab allies.
Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.A.E. Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyani signing the Abraham Accords on Sept. 15, 2020 at the White House. (White House / Tia Dufour)
Israel has recently become Morocco’s second largest weapons supplier, after Rabat decided to choose Elbit Systems as its major weapons supplier over France’s KNDS in early 2025. But it isn’t only the UAE and Morocco who are purchasing Israeli weapons, Muslim-majority nation Azerbaijan has bought around 70 percent of its weapons from Israel over the past years.
Turkmenistan, which — like Azerbaijan — borders the Islamic Republic of Iran, is also a purchaser of Israeli military technology, recently acquiring Skystriker kamikaze drones produced by Elbit Systems.
Despite many European Union nations making moves last year that were lamented in Tel Aviv, such as recognising the State of Palestine and taking symbolic action against Israel since Oct. 7, 2023 — Europe was the single largest purchaser of Israeli weapons in 2025, amounting to $6.9 billion in sales or around 36 percent of total Israeli exports.
The single nation that purchased the most Israeli arms was India, however, a relationship that both New Delhi and Tel Aviv have bragged is completely unaffected by the assault on the Gaza Strip.
Considering that Israel attacked eight countries last year, inflicted a man-made famine in the Gaza Strip by blocking all aid from entering the besieged territory for three whole months, while carrying out countless acts of aggression against Muslim and Christian Holy Sites, has raised questions about the viability of international law when nations refuse to implement it.
In November of 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. South Africa’s case against Israel, accusing it of what the court has deemed a plausible genocide, is ongoing in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
All major human rights groups – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s BT’Selem – have accused Israel of both Genocide and Apartheid.
Amid global public uproar over Israel’s military actions, governments appear to have largely ignored the democratic will of their people, and that of international law, aggressively pursuing the purchase of weapons that Israel “battle-tests” in the same arenas it is drawing accusations of war crimes. This is reflected in a whopping 56.1 percent increase in Israeli arms export profits since the year the assault on Gaza began.
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show “Palestine Files.” Director of “Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe.” Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47
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