Israel is still arming Ukrainian Nazis
Asa WinstanleyRights and Accountability21 April 2022
Video posted online by Ukraine’s Nazi Azov Battalion showed it firing an Israeli-made weapon.
Israeli anti-tank weapons are being used by Nazi soldiers in Ukraine.
A video published by
Ukraine’s Azov Battalion on Twitter this week showed one of its fighters firing an anti-tank missile. In the tweet Azov claimed it had hit a Russian vehicle.
Israeli media on Wednesday identified the missile system in the Azov video
as a Matador, a weapon developed by a consortium involving
Rafael, a state-owned Israeli arms manufacturer.
The weapon seen in the video does match with established photos of the Matador.
Yahoo News reported last month that Ukraine had bought 5,100 of the missile systems from a German manufacturer – the same firm that jointly developed the Matador with Rafael.
Matador is a portmanteau of “man-portable anti-tank, anti-door” since it is also used to blow holes in walls when fighting in urban areas.
An Israeli soldier aims an anti-tank missile
An Israeli solider trains with a Matador anti-tank missile. The same weapon recently featured in an Azov Battalion video from Mariupol. (Wikimedia Commons)
Tested in Gaza
The Matador’s “wall opening function is particularly valued” by Israeli soldiers, The Jerusalem Post reports. Israel has used the weapon in “heavily built-up environments such as the Gaza Strip,” the newspaper adds – a euphemism for how Palestinian homes have almost certainly been attacked with the weapon.
The video posted by Azov this week was also filmed in an urban environment. Azov’s headquarters has long been in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, part of the largely Russian-speaking eastern Donbass region of Ukraine.
Mariupol has been the scene of intense fighting since the Russian invasion that began on 24 February. Both Russian and Ukrainian sources this week said the city was on the verge of falling to Russian forces.
On Thursday morning Russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu said that most of the city had been captured. The last 2,000 Ukrainian fighters in the city remain holed up in the Azovstal steel plant, he said.
Anti-tank weapons with Hebrew markings
Israeli anti-tank weapon Matador on display during Israel’s 2014 “independence day” celebrations of the 1948 destruction of Palestine. (Wikimedia Commons)
Azov has been a magnet for far-right volunteers who have flocked to Ukraine from around the world in recent months. On Monday, two British citizens captured in Mariupol by Russian forces appeared in handcuffs on Russian TV.
Captured volunteer Aiden Aslin was wearing an Azov Battalion t-shirt with its distinctive Nazi symbol the Wolfsangel.
“Big Israel”
The Azov Battalion itself is named after the Sea of Azov, which Mariupol overlooks.
Azov emerged out of the far-right street gangs and football hooligans that formed the vanguard of the 2014 coup against the elected Ukrainian government. The coup regime then integrated Azov into its regular armed forces.
Ukraine’s Nazi Azov Batallion on parade in 2017. (
Azov.org.ua)
As the letter we
published as part of our original report explained, the Israeli defense ministry said it was “careful to grant licenses” to arms exporters “in full coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government entities.” The letter – sent in response to a query by human rights lawyer Eitay Mack – did not deny arming Ukrainian Nazis.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Israel denied there had been any weapon supply from Israel “since 2014.” But in a related tweet, he seemed to contradict himself by
admitting that the Tavor-style rifles were produced “under the licenses of IWI” – Israel Weapon Industries, an Israeli arms manufacturer whose licenses all must be approved by the Israeli government.
IWI’s Tavor rifles have been
used by Israeli snipers to fire on Palestinians protesting near Gaza’s boundary with Israel in recent years.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is a
big supporter of apartheid Israel.
He has
hailed a “big Israel” as the model for his country and said in his
speech to the Israeli parliament last month that both countries face the same threats.
www.atlanticcouncil.org
