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The UK government has announced it is suspending some arms sales to Israel. Following a review of export licenses, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said there was a “clear risk” they might be used to commit “a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
While yesterday’s decision is of course welcome, it doesn’t go far enough.
Under the UK’s arms export rules, licenses cannot be granted where there is a clear risk the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law – that is, the laws of war.
The Israeli military’s conduct of hostilities in Gaza makes it all too clear that UK arms could be used in grave abuses by the Israeli military. Such abuses not only include unlawful attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure but also Israel starving Gaza through an unlawful blockade of sufficient food and essential humanitarian aid.
In short: selling weapons to Israel could make the UK complicit in war crimes.
Human rights groups, including HRW, have brought a legal challenge to try to stop the UK selling arms to Israel.
Since 2015, the UK has licensed hundreds of millions of pounds worth of military exports to Israel, including components for combat aircrafts, missiles, tanks, technology, small arms and ammunition. The UK provides approximately 15% of the components in the F-35 stealth bomber aircraft currently being used in Gaza.
And this brings us to one serious problem with yesterday’s announcement: the partial suspension of UK arms sales to Israel did not include components for the F-35, a “workhorse of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign.”
Such an omission – as my expert colleague Yasmine Ahmed, HRW’s UK Director, says – “shows either a miscomprehension of the law or a willful disregard. The secretary of state shouldn’t make exemptions.”
The struggle thus continues to get the UK government to stop providing arms to Israel for its atrocity-ridden military campaign in Gaza.
And, of course, the concern over atrocity crimes in and around Gaza extends further, well beyond the UK and Israel. The hostages illegally held for nearly 11 months by Hamas and then shot dead just last week spring immediately to mind, both because of the horror of the act itself and the public outrage in Israel it has fueled.
All the warring parties – including Israel, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad – should stop targeting civilians, and all countries supplying arms – including the UK, US, Germany, and Iran – should stop doing so.
