Paris - On 2 November, Al-Haq and partner organisations have issued a press release informing of SOGENA’s, the organiser of EURONAVAL 2024 “the world's naval defence exhibition”, failure to respond to our notice of 25 October to take all measures to prevent the sales of weapons likely to be used in the commission of crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory and Lebanon.
On 25 October, Al-Haq and partners called upon SOGENA, the organiser of EURONAVAL exhibition that will take place from 4 to 7 November 2024 in Paris, France, to take, within eight days, all measures to prevent the sales of weapons likely to be used in the commission of crimes in the oPt and Lebanon, and to ban the participation of companies likely to be involved in these crimes, including Israeli companies and delegations, or any intermediary of Israel. The notice reminded SOGENA of its potential complicity in international crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, that Israel is perpetrating in its military offensive against Gaza since 7 October 2023.
With the elapse of the eight-day-period, SOGENA has failed to respond to our legal notice. In this regard, Al-Haq and partners have stressed that hosting Israeli companies, or companies of other nationalities that supply arms to Israel at the Euronaval exhibition, at a time of heightened international condemnation of Israel’s grave violations of international law, with three binding Provisional Measures orders issued by the International Court of Justice, and the ongoing examination by Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court of the application for arrest warrants against two Israeli officials, places SOGENA, a subsidiary of GICAN (The French Maritime Industry Association), at a serious risk of incurring criminal liability.
While the French president, Emmanuel Macron, called for an end to arms sales to Israel in early October, on 16 October, the Euronaval website announced that the government had “approved the participation of Israeli delegations in the Euronaval 2024 exhibition, without stands or equipment”, specifying that seven Israeli companies were affected by this decision. On 18 October, however, the French government announced in the French Agency of Press (AFP) article that “there was never any question of prohibiting the participation of Israeli companies”. The Euronaval website was subsequently amended announcing that these companies “will be able to have a stand provided that their products are not used in military operations in Gaza and Lebanon”.
By failing to respond to our notice, SOGENA did not provide any justification for introducing a differentiation system between weapons used in Israeli offensives and other weapons delivered to Israel, or clarify the basis for such differentiation. Al-Haq and partners stressed that it is impossible to sort out these weapons. Even if that were the case, by allowing Israeli companies or companies of other nationalities that supply weapons to Israel to attend the exhibition, SOGENA is contributing to strengthening their economic power, which could in turn constitute assistance to Israel's crimes, in violation of French and international law on complicity in international crimes.
The press release was issued on behalf of the organisations Al-Haq, UJFP, and the collectives Stop Arming Israel France, Urgence Palestine, and coordinated and supported by Droits et Mouvements Sociaux.
Read the press release in French here.