F-35 fighter jets are crucial for apartheid Israel to carry out its genocide against the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. The many countries involved in building and purchasing the US-produced F-35 jets are complicit in Israel’s genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest Palestinian civil society coalition leading the global BDS movement,calls on grassroots movements and people of conscience across the globe to escalate pressure, including peaceful disruptive actions, against states, companies, and institutions complicit in the F-35 program by joining the Week of Action against F-35 on 13-18 October.
In June 2024, a UN report identified F-35s, produced by Lockheed Martin, as being used in “emblematic” cases of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Gaza that “led to high numbers of civilian fatalities and widespread destruction of civilian objects.” In June 2024, a UN report identified that F-35s, produced by Lockheed Martin, “led to high numbers of civilian fatalities and widespread destruction of civilian objects,” in Gaza.
On 2 September 2024, Danish NGO Danwatch revealed that Israeli forces used an F-35 in July to drop three 2,000 lb bombs in an attack on a so-called “safe zone” in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, killing 90 Palestinians.
F-35s have also been used by Israel to commit grave human rights violations en-masse in the West Bank for several years, and most recently to attack other states like Qatar and Yemen. Partner states in the F-35 program have failed to uphold international law by supplying and buying from Israel and its military industry.
Let’s disrupt the global chain of complicity that enables these Israeli crimes.
Thirteen states manufacture parts specifically for these F-35 jets: US, UK, Australia, Canada, Norway, Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Israel. The main partner manufacturing companies are: BAE Systems, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Collins Aerospace, and many other smaller suppliers are involved. The components they produce are then sent to Lockheed Martin, and Pratt and Whitney factories in the US and UK, where they are assembled and from there, the F-35Is, specially made for Israel, are sent to the genocidal state. No supplier so far has complied with the obligation under international law to ensure that its components are not being used in the ongoing genocide. These components are part of the F-35I jets that enable Israel to murder Palestinian women, men and children on a daily basis, and destroy their homes, hospitals, schools and other vital infrastructure.
End-user compliance is an obligation for all producers of F-35 parts, as with all other military materiel that is used in the commission of grave human rights violations, particularly atrocity crimes.
Moreover, there are at least 19 states currently using F-35 fighter jets, and several states have recently signed deals to purchase them. These include the US, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, Greece, Germany, South Korea, Singapore, Poland, Romania and Switzerland. These states cannot ensure that the jets they purchase do not have components made in Israel, and therefore tested on Palestinian and other Arab civilians.
Every state that buys an F-35, and every state or company that produces parts for, and assembles an F-35 are critical in maintaining the production of these fighter jets.
Under the Genocide Convention and the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) states have to prevent both direct and indirect transfers of military equipment and technology – including parts, components, and dual-use items – where there is an overriding risk that such equipment and technology could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international law. Last year, in adopting the International Court of Justice’s ruling about the illegality of Israel’s entire occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, states overwhelmingly voted for UN General Assembly Resolution A/ES-10/L.31 demanding that states “Take steps towards ceasing [...]the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel, the occupying Power, in all cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
We must hold states, weapons manufacturing corporations, and the entire F-35 supply chain accountable for their role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. As a matter of life-or-death urgency, we call on you to disrupt this complicity— to end business as usual with a rogue, apartheid state and its livestreamed genocide.
We call for pressure on states to completely end their complicity in Israel’s role in the F-35 program. This means:
- Companies and States supplying components for F-35s stop selling these parts to companies assembling or maintaining the jets until they can ensure no components end up in Israel’s F-35 jets and Israel is entirely excluded from the F-35 project.
- Companies and States assembling F-35s stop selling these jets to Israel.
- States stop buying F-35s if they cannot ensure they don’t include any Israeli-made components.
We are calling on grassroots movements, trade unions and other civil society organizations to escalate peaceful pressure, including through disruptions and mass protests, on complicit ministries, parliaments and manufacturing companies. To this end, we call for organizing strikes and work stoppages, where possible and reasonable, and launching and supporting intersectional campaigns — pushing universities, unions, hospitals, and councils to divest from these war-profiteering companies.
The BDS movement, with its tens of millions of supporters in over 120 countries worldwide, will not stop until we end Israel’s genocide and until Palestinians everywhere can exercise self-determination and enjoy freedom, justice and equality.
For more information or to get involved contact [email protected].