Summary: Non-signatory Israel has acknowledged the humanitarian concerns with cluster munitions, but sees military utility in the weapons. It has never participated in a meeting of the convention and abstained from voting on a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015.

Israel is a producer, importer, and exporter of cluster munitions and it likely has a significant stockpile, but has never disclosed information on the quantities or types. It also hosts a stockpile of US cluster munitions that are available for transfer to Israel in an emergency. Israel’s last use of cluster munitions in south Lebanon in 2006 was part of the catalyst for the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Policy

The State of Israel has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Israel has acknowledged humanitarian concerns with cluster munitions, but sees military utility in the weapons. Israel last elaborated its views on accession to the convention in November 2011, when it commented that “instruments” on cluster munitions “may be more expansive, but nevertheless do not enjoy the support of many relevant states,” a clear reference to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1]

In a 2009 letter to the Monitor, Israel said it “shares the views of those states wishing to alleviate the humanitarian concerns that may be associated with the use of cluster munitions,” which it said could be best achieved within the framework of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), to which it is a party.[2] Israel is not known to have reevaluated that position since the 2011 failure of the CCW to agree on a draft protocol on cluster munitions, leaving the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole international instrument dedicated to ending the suffering caused by cluster munitions.[3]

On 7 December 2015, Israel abstained from the vote on the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4] Israel did not explain the reasons for its abstention on the non-binding resolution, which 140 states voted for, including many non-signatories.

Israel did not participate in the diplomatic Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5] From 2000—when the CCW first began discussing cluster munitions—until mid-2008, Israel opposed any new rules or regulations for states on the use of cluster munitions, insisting that existing international law was sufficient. It justified its use of cluster munitions in Lebanon in 2006, by arguing the use was in conformity with international humanitarian law. It said, “Both international law and accepted practice do not prohibit the use of…‘cluster bombs.’ Consequently, the main issue…should be the method of their use, rather than their legality.”[6]

Israel has never attended a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, even as an observer as other states not party have done. Israel was invited to, but did not attend the First Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in September 2015.

Israel has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[7]

Israel is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Use

Israel used cluster munitions in July and August 2006 in south Lebanon against Hezbollah, in 1982 in Lebanon against Syrian forces and non-state armed groups (NSAG), and in 1978 in south Lebanon. In 1973, Israel used cluster munitions in Syria against NSAG training camps near Damascus.[8] Israeli air forces also used cluster bombs against Egyptian air defense positions in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.[9]

In January 2008, the Winograd Commission of inquiry appointed by the Israeli government to investigate the 2006 conflict reported a lack of clarity regarding the acceptable or appropriate use of cluster munitions.[10] In October 2012, a senior Israeli military officer briefing foreign journalists reportedly said that in any future war with Hezbollah, Israel’s cluster munition use would be “much reduced, significantly reduced,” compared to its previous use of the weapons during the 2006 conflict. According to the official, “Due to a whole range of considerations—legitimacy, our non-indifference to the treaty, effectiveness and other factors—cluster use is expected to be reduced in combat in the rural areas.”[11]

Israel has not used cluster munitions since 2006.

Production and transfer

Israel has been a major producer and exporter of cluster munitions, primarily artillery projectiles and rockets containing the M85 dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunition equipped with a back-up pyrotechnic self-destruct fuze.[12]

Israel Military Industries (IMI) has produced, license-produced, and exported cluster munitions including artillery projectiles (105mm, 122mm, 130mm, 152mm, 155mm, 175mm, and 203mm), mortar bombs (120mm), and rockets (EXTRA, GRADLAR, and LAR-160).[13]

In the past, Israel concluded licensing agreements for the M85 with Germany, India, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US).[14] Based on lot numbers and production markings, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and the UK have also declared stockpiling 155mm artillery projectiles containing M85 submunitions in their transparency reports for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Azerbaijan received a total of 50 Extra surface-to-surface missiles from Israel for its Lynx-type launchers in 2008–2009; it had ordered them in 2005.[15] Georgia received four GRADLAR 122mm/160mm rocket launcher units from Israel in 2007.[16] State Party Chile declared possessing 249 LAR-160 cluster munition rockets.[17] Israel reportedly also exported the LAR-160 rocket system to Venezuela.[18]

In 2015, the government put state-owned IMI up for sale as part of a privatization measure.[19] As of June 2016, negotiations were reportedly continuing with Elbit Systems over the purchase of IMI, now reportedly known as “IMI Systems Ltd.”[20] Meanwhile, Israel’s Minister of Defense appointed a new chair of IMI.[21]

The IMI website no longer lists the M85 DPICM submunition among its products. The site, however, lists the M99 “dual-purpose advanced submunition” that IMI says provides “improved operational safety and reliability” and “guarantees extremely low dude rate” due to three independent fuze mechanisms.[22]

Israel has produced several types of air-dropped cluster munitions. The Rafael Corporation is credited with producing the ATAP-300, ATAP-500, ATAP-1000 RAM, TAL-1, and TAL-2 cluster bombs, as well as the BARAD Helicopter Submunition Dispenser.[23] In August 2011, Venezuela announced its destruction of Israeli-made AS TAL-1 cluster bombs belonging to its air force.[24] An air-dropped cluster bomb of Israeli origin called ARC-32 was reportedly stockpiled by Colombia.[25]

Israel has imported cluster munitions from the US, including M26 rockets (each with 644 submunitions) for its M270 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) launchers and 155mm M483A1 projectiles (each with 88 submunitions). It used both in south Lebanon in 2006. The US has also supplied Israel with Rockeye cluster bombs (with 247 bomblets each) and CBU-58B cluster bombs (with 650 bomblets each).[26]

Stockpiling

The size and composition of Israel’s current stockpile of cluster munitions is not known, but it is likely to be significant and comprised of the cluster munitions listed above.[27]

Israel also hosts a stockpile of US ammunition, which could be transferred to Israel in an emergency.[28] That cluster munitions were part of this stockpile was disclosed in a 2008 US Department of State cable released by Wikileaks in 2011 that contained the claim that in 2008, US-manufactured cluster munitions with more than a 1% tested failure rate “constitute greater than 60 percent of the overall” holdings of cluster munitions in the “pre-positioned War Reserve Stockpiles in Israel (WRSA/I).”[29] The Israeli officials reportedly warned the US that “unless the prohibition is lifted, Israel will have to revise its defensive doctrine, find a solution to the one-percent dud rate requirement for cluster munitions, and look to another type of weapon system on which to center its self defense strategy.”[30]