The Covid-19 pandemic and allegations that the virus was engineered in China before spreading globally, even if inadvertently, have made the inherit danger from use of such abhorrent weapons clear to all. Due to its horrendous consequences and the almost total inability to prevent their indiscriminate use, biological weapons are the first category of weapons to be completely prohibited by an international convention: the 1975 BWC, which boasts 183-member States (including Palestine) and four signatory States (Egypt, Syria, Somalia and Haiti) as of January 2020.
Israel, which has so far refrained from joining the Convention, today now remains with only nine additional states (four Islands and five African states) outside the treaty. Furthermore, seven of them have already started the acceding process leaving Israel, Eritrea and Comoro Islands the sole states showing no sign of and intention to join.
The paper seeks to explore Israel’s refusal to accede this treaty. By examining the formal explanations Israel’s representatives have provided over the years, and exposing their weakness, the paper argues that the true reasons for Israel’s reluctance to join rests on Israel’s alleged acquisition of a nuclear arsenal and her long-standing concern about the “slippery slope” scenario.
Relying on the history of arms control, other states’ post-assent experiences, and the present state of international arms control politics, especially in relation to the BWC, the paper suggests that the pandemic is currently Israel’s best opportunity “to [finally-EB] put itself squarely on the ‘right’ side, that of Western civilization” (Avner Cohen, 2003).