Photo: Henschel arrested at CANSEC, May 29, 2024.
More than a year ago, on May 29, 2024, David Mikha’El Henschel, a representative of the German weapons company Rheinmetall, assaulted a Palestinian woman outside the CANSEC arms show at the EY Centre in Ottawa organized by the Canadian Association of Defence Industries (CADSI).
Instagram post by Ottawa Palestinian Youth Movement.
CBC News now reports: “A Swiss man has pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman at an anti-war, pro-Palestinian demonstration in Ottawa during the 2024 CANSEC conference…”
The article continues: “According to court documents, he is an employee of Rheinmetall Waffe Munition Schweiz AG (RWMSchweiz AG), an ammunition manufacturer. …Henschel’s defence lawyer, James Foord, said … his client is a good person and that his submissions will provide more insight into Henschel’s character.”
Rheinmetall explains: “RWM Schweiz AG (former Oerlikon Contraves Pyrotec AG) specialises in the development and manufacture of medium calibre ammunition for land, air and naval applications, including anti-aircraft rounds.”
Rheinmetall and the genocide in Gaza
The American Friends Service Committee has previously posted about Rheinmetall on its Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide webpage: “Germany’s largest weapons manufacturer, which is providing Israel with 10,000 rounds of 120mm precision tank ammunition. Israel made the request in November, and Germany reportedly considered speeding up delivery of the ammunition by providing it from its own military’s existing stockpiles while ordering more from Rheinmetall.”
On June 20, 2024, United Nations experts highlighted: “Arms manufacturers supplying Israel – including BAE Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Oshkosh, Rheinmetall AG, Rolls-Royce Power Systems, RTX, and ThyssenKrupp – should end transfers, even if they are executed under existing export licenses.”
In July 2024, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre further posted: “Facing Finance and impACT International criticised Rheinmetall, claiming that the arms manufacturer risks contributing to human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law through its weapon exports. Articles claim Rheinmetall avoids the German government’s arms export restrictions by exporting weapons through subsidiaries based in other countries.”
That same month, Niamh Ní Bhriain of the Transnational Institute and Mark Akkerman of Stop Wapenhandel, both of whom are based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, also noted: “British company BAE Systems, in conjunction with German company Rheinmetall, manufactures M109 self-propelled howitzers which have been used to shell densely populated areas in Gaza. Amnesty International has found evidence that these artillery weapons also deployed white phosphorus munitions, which can burn skin down to the bone and cause organ dysfunction; their use in civilian areas is restricted under international law.”
And in her June 2025 report, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese noted: “For Israeli companies such as Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, the ongoing genocide has been a profitable venture. …Foreign arms companies, especially producers of munitions and ordnance, also profit.”
The footnote for the foreign arms companies profiting from genocide links to this Rheinmetall webpage on Aircraft Bombs.
Holding executives accountable for international crimes
The report by Albanese also states: “While political leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and, now, genocide. The complicity exposed by this report is just the tip of the iceberg; ending it will not happen without holding the private sector accountable, including its executives.”
In July 2025, The Guardian reported: “Albanese’s report points to precedents in holding corporations legally accountable for human rights abuses they enable, including the prosecution of leading German industrialists at the Nuremberg tribunal after the second world war, in what was known as the IG Farben trial.”
That article adds: “In her recommendations, Albanese calls for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel, and urges the international criminal court ‘and national judiciaries to investigate and prosecute corporate executives and/or corporate entities for their part in the commission of international crimes and laundering of the proceeds from those crimes.’”
Palestinian human rights defenders killed
The Dublin-based organization Front Line Defenders (the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders) has documented the killing of 31 Palestinian human rights defenders in 2023 and 2024.
The numbers are undoubtedly higher. Front Line Defenders notes: “In some regions and countries, including Palestine, the documentation of cases is highly challenging, if not virtually impossible.” They clearly state, however, that “those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”
Henschel to be sentenced for assault on November 24
According to the CBC News article: “He is expected to be sentenced following submissions on Nov. 24. It’s expected Crown prosecutors will read statements from the victim and other community members at that time. “
We continue to follow this.
