Policy

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

Israel has not publicly articulated its views on joining the ban convention in recent years. In November 2011, it said that “instruments” on cluster munitions “may be more expansive, but nevertheless do not enjoy the support of many relevant states” a reference to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1]

In 2009, Israel stated that it “shares the views of those states wishing to alleviate the humanitarian concerns that may be associated with the use of cluster munitions,” but said it “believes that this could be best achieved within the framework of the CCW [Convention on Conventional Weapons],” to which it is a party.[2] Israel is not known to have reevaluated its 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 multilateral instrument on the weapon.[3]

Israel did not participate in the diplomatic Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4] 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. In justifying its use of cluster munitions in Lebanon in July and August 2006, Israel stressed that it did so 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.”[5]

Israel has never attended any meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, even as an observer as other states not party have done.

Israel voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 68/182 condemning the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions, on 18 December 2013.[6]

Israel is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Use

Israel used cluster munitions in 2006 in south Lebanon against Hezbollah, in 1982 in Lebanon against Syrian forces and non-state armed groups (NSAG), in 1978 in south Lebanon, and in 1973 in Syria against NSAG training camps near Damascus.[7]

In January 2008, the Winograd Commission of inquiry appointed by the Israeli government to investigate the 2006 conflict reported that there was a lack of clarity regarding the acceptable or appropriate use of cluster munitions.[8] In October 2012, a senior Israeli military officer briefing foreign journalists on condition of anonymity reportedly stated 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.”[9]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

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. Israel Military Industries (IMI) produces, license-produces, and exports cluster munitions including artillery projectiles (105mm, 122mm, 130mm, 152mm, 155mm, 175mm, and 203mm), mortar bombs (120mm), and rockets (EXTRA, GRADLAR, and LAR-160).[10]

In 2004, a representative of the company claimed that IMI produced more than 60 million M85 DPICM submunitions.[11] Historically it has concluded licensing agreements for the M85 with Germany, India, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US).[12] Based on lot numbers and production markings, Austria, Germany, Norway, and the UK have declared stockpiling 155mm artillery projectiles containing M85 submunitions in their Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 reports submitted in 2011. Israel transferred four GRADLAR 122mm/160mm rocket launcher units to Georgia in 2007. Georgia has acknowledged using the launchers with 160mm Mk IV rockets, each containing 104 M85 DPICM submunitions, during its August 2008 conflict with Russia.[13] State Party Chile declared possessing 249 of these rockets.[14] The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has reported that Israel has exported the LAR-160 rocket system to Venezuela as well as more recent exports of the EXTRA surface-to-surface missile system to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, but it is not known if ammunition containing submunitions were included in these deals.[15]

Israel has also 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.[16] In August 2011, Venezuela announced the “recent” destruction of Israeli-made AS TAL-1 cluster bombs belonging to its air force.[17] An air-dropped anti-runway cluster bomb called ARC-32 of Israeli origin has been reported in the stockpiles of Colombia.[18]

Israel has imported cluster munitions from the US, including M26 rockets (each with 644 submunitions) for its multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) launchers and 155mm M483A1 projectiles (each with 88 submunitions), both used in south Lebanon in 2006. The US has also supplied Rockeye cluster bombs (with 247 bomblets each) and CBU-58B cluster bombs (with 650 bomblets each).[19]

The size and composition of Israel’s current stockpile of cluster munitions is not known. Additionally, it captured and possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if the ammunition for these weapons includes versions with submunition payloads.[20]

Israel also hosts a stockpile of US ammunition, which could be transferred to Israel in an emergency.[21] That cluster munitions were part of this stockpile was disclosed in a US Department of State cable in September 2011 released by Wikileaks that contained the claim that in 2008, US-manufactured cluster munitions with more than a one-percent 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).”[22] 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.”[23]