‘A pencil is not a weapon, but it can be’: What does Australia send to Israel?

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy could not have been any clearer. “We are not exporting military equipment to Israel,” Conroy told the ABC in an interview in February.

“We are not exporting military weapons, things like bombs, things like that, to Israel.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has been similarly blunt, saying in November: “Australia has not supplied weapons to Israel since the start of the Hamas-Israeli conflict.”

A lot of misinformation, Wong added, has been circulating on social media about the provision of weapons to Israel.

Meanwhile, the Greens and human rights groups like Amnesty International have been campaigning for Australia to immediately stop military exports to Israel.

“War crimes are being committed in the invasion of Gaza, so Labor must stop military exports to Israel,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said last year.

An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile.Credit: AP

These calls have only grown louder since the deaths of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six colleagues in Gaza last week.

So who is telling the truth? Are Australian weapons – or military components – being used by Israel in its war in Gaza?

Where does Israel get its weapons?

The vast majority of Israel’s overseas weapons supplies come from two nations: the United States and Germany. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the US accounted for 69 per cent of Israeli arms imports from 2019 to 2023 while 30 per cent of Israeli arms imports came from Germany. Italy was a distant third on 0.9 per cent. Israel also has developed a highly advanced defence industry of its own. In fact, it is a more significant global arms exporter than Australia.

The US has been supplying weapons to Israel for decades.Credit: Bloomberg

What military equipment does Australia send to Israel?

To send most military equipment overseas, Australian companies are required to receive an export permit from the federal government. According to figures released by the federal government last year to Greens Senator David Shoebridge, 322 Australian permits were issued for Israel-bound military or dual-use exports between 2017 and 2023. In February, defence officials revealed that the government has granted two defence export permits to Israel since October 7 last year.

Hugh Jeffrey, a senior Department of Defence official, told Senate estimates hearings in October that none of the Australian export permits for Israel related to “lethal equipment”.

Many of the export permits, he said, relate to dual-use technologies: goods and software that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

“I’m not going to go into the details of the permits themselves, but those permits would involve things like radios, body armour, software, vehicle parts. Sporting equipment too,” Jeffrey said. Equipment used at shooting ranges, for example, may be included among the permits granted.

Separately, figures provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade last November show that Australian arms and ammunition exports to Israel totalled $13 million over the past five years. For context, Israel spends about $38 billion annually on defence, with $5.8 billion coming from US aid.

What military equipment counts as weapons?

At Senate estimates hearings in February, Shoebridge and Jeffrey had a lively exchange about the definition of a military weapon. Shoebridge homed in on the example of the F-35 fighter jet, an advanced aircraft used by the Israeli military.

Australia forms an important part of the global supply chain for F-35 production, with key components of the jets manufactured in suburban Melbourne.

According to the Victorian government, Moorabbin-based company Marand holds a critical assembly role for more than 700 highly technical parts for the jet and is the original equipment manufacturer for the F-35 engine trailer.

Shoebridge asked whether key components count as weapons. How about the bay doors used to release bombs?

No, said Jeffrey. Under the United Nations definition adopted by Australia, weapons are defined as whole systems, such as armoured vehicles, tanks and combat helicopters.

The F-35 fighter has components made in Australia, but it is not exported from Australia to Israel in its totality.

“A pencil is used for writing,” Jeffrey said to explain the distinction. “It’s not designed, in and of itself, to be a weapon, but it can be, if you want to use it as a weapon.”

This distinction helps explain why the government insists Australia does not send weapons to Israel, even though defence export permits have been approved.

Could Australia restrict military exports to Israel?

The federal government has broad leeway to decide whether to allow the defence equipment to be exported to particular countries. For example, under the strict sanctions that apply to Iran, Australian companies are not allowed to export any arms or related materials, nor particular types of graphite, raw metals and software.

For countries such as Israel, permits are approved case by case and decided against 12 legislative criteria – including Australia’s legal obligations relating to human rights.

“If we have a serious concern that agreement to an export permit would involve those goods being exported contributing to the abuse of human rights, for example, in a conflict in which we had serious concerns, then we’d not agree to the permit,” Jeffrey said.

Countries including Canada, Japan, Spain and Belgium have suspended arms exports to Israel since the war in Gaza began.

In February, a Dutch court ordered the government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used to violate international law during the war in Gaza.

Smoke rises inside the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel last month.Credit: AP

“It is undeniable that there is a clear risk the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,” the court said.

The Dutch government said it would appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that it should be up to the state to set foreign policy, not a court.

Although clearly angry at Israel, the Albanese government has not yet given any indication that it will ban defence exports to the country.

However, some Australian defence firms believe there has already been an unofficial “go slow” on approvals for military exports to Israel, like counter-drone technology, since the war in Gaza began.

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