A shipment of Soviet-made military equipment bound for Israel that was seized a year ago will be given to the Jewish state after all, the German Defense Ministry has confirmed.
The decision to provide Israel with the equipment, which was left behind in the withdrawal of Soviet troops from East Germany, was made following talks here last month between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and German Defense Minister Volker Ruhe.
Germany’s decision to release the equipment for Israeli research and testing broke a logjam in the disposition of the equipment, which had been confiscated by Hamburg customs authorities from the Israeli freighter Palmach II.
The arms, which were identified as “agricultural equipment,” apparently included armored vehicles with anti-aircraft capability.
The clandestine shipment, arranged by high-ranking officials of Germany’s intelligence service and defense establishment, was at the time challenged by the German opposition but strongly defended by Gerhard Stoltenberg, who was then defense minister.
German law forbids the export of weapons to crisis areas such as the Middle East. But the German intelligence service, known as the BND, has long had an arrangement with its Israeli counterpart, Mossad, to exchange weapons of Soviet origin for examination and testing.
The announcement comes against a background of media reports about an agreement between the two countries on stepped-up cooperation in defense.
The arms are of the kind Israel might face on the battlefield, because similar equipment is used by its Arab adversaries, notably Syria and Iraq.
They are now due to be picked up by an Israeli merchant ship at a port in northern Germany.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
