Israel spent about $1.1 billion on nuclear weapons during the past year, according to reports from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), part of which was reported by the Israeli newspaper Globes.
The international campaign ranks Israel seventh in the world in terms of investment in nuclear weapons, slightly higher than Pakistan, which spent an estimated $1 billion last year, and North Korea, which spent $900 million.
According to the campaign, Israel, the United States, China, Britain, France, Russia, India and North Korea collectively spent $91.4 billion on nuclear weapons in 2023.
ICAN says the money invested in nuclear weapons last year could have saved 27% of the deficit in financing the fight against global warming.
Founded in Australia and now headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, ICAN was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
No transparency
It is noteworthy that the International Campaign to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons accused Israel of not being transparent with regard to its possession and spending on nuclear weapons.
Since the 1960s, Israel has maintained a policy of nuclear ambiguity regarding its possession of nuclear weapons and the extent of spending on its program.
Anadolu Agency quoted the organization’s program coordinator, Susi Snyder, as saying that the world knows that Israel possesses about 90 nuclear warheads, according to estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. However, it has not admitted to possessing these weapons, which raises the international community’s concern about the dangers of this nuclear arsenal.
Snyder stressed that nuclear weapons pose a “global threat” that transcends borders, as they can affect countries far from where they are used.
Doomsday
In October 2023, Revital Tali Gottliff, a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) from the Likud Party, called for the use of “nuclear doomsday weapons against Gaza and razing it to the ground.”
In November 2023, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu did not rule out the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip, considering it “one of the ways” to deal with the Strip, in his response to a journalist’s question about whether he expected Israel to drop “some kind of bomb.” Nuclear attack on Gaza.
Israel adopts a policy of “nuclear blackout” and refuses to allow any international bodies to inspect its suspicious sites, or to abide by any international agreements to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Source : Israeli press + Anadolu Agency
