Denmark cancels military deal with Israel

 The Danish government cancelled the tender for the purchase of 9 – 21, Israeli-made, self-propelled howitzers, citing economic reasons.

Denmark’s left-wing opposition maintains that the government cancelled the deal with the Israeli Elbit Systems after political pressure.

The weapons deal with Elbit Systems worth some 75 – 150 million US dollars was cancelled on April 30. The Danish government cited the need for funds to repair a helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan in 2014 as reason for cancelling the deal.

The Danish MP for the left/green Unity List (Enhedslisten), Christian Juhl, however, would note that the government cancelled the purchase of the self-propelled Israeli howitzers for tactical, that is for political reasons.

Juhl would note that the cancellation of the deal happened only, after Enhedslisten began highlighting the issue and after the media began reporting about it.

In December 2014 a post on the Facebook page of a Danish Lieutenant Colonel revealed that Danish soldiers were test-firing the howitzers in the Negev desert.

The discovery of the Facebook post prompted a parliamentary round of debates, leading to the Danish government’s admission that 20 Danish soldiers had been deployed to test the Elbit Systems weapon and weapon platform.