Will the UK’s new Labour government halt arms sales to Israel?
F-35 fighter jet
Edna Mohamed writes in Al Jazeera on 14 August 2024:
As the United States clears the way for the sale of $20bn of weapons to Israel, pressure on the United Kingdom to cease such arms sales has stepped up amid reports that some sales could be restricted in the coming months.
Between October 7, when Israel’s war on Gaza began, and the end of May, the UK granted more than 100 export licences for the sale of weapons and military equipment to Israel, official figures show. The value of these deals has not been revealed. However, between 2008 and the end of 2023, the UK granted export licences for arms deals to Israel worth 576 million pounds ($740m). The total value of arms deals granted in 2023 is estimated at 18.2 million pounds – still far short of the more than 200 million pounds granted in 2017.
Pro-Palestine activists have called on the government to cease the sales of arms to Israel as its war on Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 people with thousands more missing and presumed dead under the rubble of buildings. More than 92,000 people have been injured.
Military export licences to Israel 2008-2022
Despite this, the previous Conservative government, which lost power to Labour in a landslide election in July, decided in May that there was no reason to suspend arms exports.
It cited the UK’s arms export rules, which state that export licences should not be granted if there is a “clear risk” that they would “facilitate a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)”, and said there was no evidence of this.