Duterte's goons are executing people with Israeli weapons

Philippine police are executing people with Israeli weapons

Israel continues to export arms and military training to Rodrigo Duterte’s regime, even after the ICC launched a preliminary investigation to look into suspicions of crimes against humanity there.
By Eitay Mack

Former Philippine National Police Chief and current Senate of the Philippines Ronald dela Rosa seen holding an Israeli-made rifle. (Courtesy of Philippine National Police)

For much of the past two years, Israel has been exporting weapons and military training to the Philippine security forces under President Rodrigo Duterte. As part of Duterte’s brutal drug war, police officers and masked militiamen have been raiding the country’s poorest neighborhoods, where they execute men and young boys suspected of criminal activities or drug use. Their weapons of choice? Israeli-produced rifles such as the Tavor and the Negev, and handguns such as the Masada.

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According to human rights organizations, since Dutarte was elected president of the Philippines in June 2016, the country’s police force and its various militias have executed at least 12,000 people without trial, according to Human Rights Watch.
Duterte is using the drug war to fortify his rule and justify the weakening of his country’s democratic institutions, which were put in place after the fall of Ferdinand Marcos’ decades-long dictatorship in 1986. Instead of dealing with the Philippines’ real problems, Duterte is choosing to invest the country’s limited resources in tackling the its drug problem in such a way that violates international law and aligns with his election campaign promise to kill 100,000 people in the first six months of his presidency.

https://972mag.com/philippines-duterte-israeli-weapons/142893/