‘Beyond alarming’: Cameron slammed over continued UK arms exports to Israel
Foreign Secretary David Cameron and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, April 2024
Dania Akkad reports in Middle East Eye on 10 April 2024:
More than two dozen licences for UK exports to Israel of weapons and components flagged by government officials as “most likely” to be used by the Israeli army in Gaza appear to have remained active since 7 October and will continue to do so.
That’s one conclusion that can be drawn following British Foreign Secretary David Cameron’s remarks on Tuesday during a press conference in Washington with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that the UK will not suspend arms exports to Israel.
“The latest assessment leaves our position on export licenses unchanged,” Cameron told reporters. “The overall judgement is those export licenses will remain open and continue.”
More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the war began with Hamas-led attacks on 7 October, destroying most of the strip’s critical infrastructure including all major hospitals, and displacing the vast majority of the 2.3m population.
Cameron’s comments, in response to questions posed by BBC and ITV journalists, followed weeks of speculation and unanswered questions in parliament demanding clarity about the government’s assessment of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.
Calls for the government to publish its legal advice – and, more broadly, for the UK to halt arms sales to Israel – heightened following the killing of three British aid workers in an Israeli military attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza last week.
MPs from opposition parties have been highly critical of the government’s position. Labour’s David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, has called the refusal to publish legal advice “simply not good enough”, while Scottish National Party foreign affairs spokesperson Brendan O’Hara said continuing arms sales and government evasiveness on the issue was “incredibly disrespectful to parliamentarians and the people of the UK”. “The whole situation in Gaza is one of the most pressing issues of our time,” O’Hara told Middle East Eye on Wednesday. “[Cameron] should have the courage of his convictions and stand in the UK and say it.”
Cameron has also faced calls to halt arms exports to Israel, or to explain the basis on which it is continuing to approve arms sales, from some members of his own Conservative Party. But other members of the ruling party have pressed for sales to remain in place, suggesting that their end could be a threat to UK-Israel intelligence sharing and national security.
Active UK licences
Cameron’s comments appeared to confirm that 28 active licences flagged in an internal government review after 7 October as “most likely” to be used by Israel in Gaza, including components for combat aircraft, armoured personnel carriers and targeting equipment, have remained in place.