Why the UK refuses to do the one thing that could stop Israel’s ‘intolerable’ war on Gaza
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched from Hyde Park Corner to the US embassy in Nine Elms on 9 March 2024
Anna Stavrianakis writes in Middle East Eye on 29 May 2025:
What Israel is doing in Gaza is “morally wrong and unjustifiable”, its actions “intolerable” and “an affront to the values of the British people”.
These are not the words of a pro-Palestine activist, but of the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, who has now suspended negotiations on a new free trade agreement and vowed to review co-operation on the 2030 bilateral road map.
But the UK government still won’t take the single fastest and most effective step: ending military cooperation with Israel and halting all arms sales.
Lammy said in parliament that “arms are not getting to Israel that could be used in Gaza”. This is false. The UK government last year suspended a small number of arms export licences – around 10 percent – after determining that Israel is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law, but it allowed UK participation in the F-35 fighter jet programme to continue.
In addition, new data from both Israel and the UK raises concerns about the scale and end use of UK-supplied weaponry.
In its September 2024 decision to restrict certain arms sales, the government decided on the narrowest possible approach: it suspended licences for weapons with a direct use in Gaza, but it did not halt wider arms exports to Israel for use by the army – such as for training purposes or for its illegal occupation of the West Bank – or for Israeli industry use.
Yet there is a much wider pattern of British military collaboration with Israel and its illegal practices, beyond direct violence in Gaza.
Even within the government’s narrow position, there is a massive loophole. The suspension does not cover components that go to the USA to be put into F35s to be sent to Israel. UK companies provide 15 percent of every new F-35 fighter jet made. Neither does the suspension cover components that reach Israel via a global spare parts pool. The pool is coordinated by the US Department of Defense and arms companies Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney.
Yet apparently there is no system in place to track the movement of parts into and out of the pool – which the British government says makes it impossible for it to prevent UK-made parts from reaching Israel.