Joint Statement: Government’s delay in making a decision on arms exports to Israel is unconscionable

The UK government’s delay in making a decision on whether to stop arms exports to Israel is unconscionable. It is at total odds with Britain’s clear moral and legal responsibility not to render aid and assistance to Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, its unlawful military occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and its regime of apartheid against all Palestinians. 

In the past week alone, Israel’s ground invasion of Khan Younis has killed dozens of Palestinians, displacing 190,000 people. Last Saturday, Israel once again bombed a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, killing over 30 Palestinians. In the occupied West Bank, Israel continues its military invasions and assassinations of Palestinians, with at least 554 Palestinians killed since October 2023. 

The UK’s deadly arms trade with Israel includes its contribution to the F-16 and F-35 fighter jets that Israel is using in its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. 15% of every F35 that Israel is using to bomb Gaza is made by British industry.  The Israeli military has armed these jets with 2,000lb bombs, explosives with a lethal radius up to 365m. A UN report found that these bombs have been used in ’emblematic’ cases of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Gaza. 

The government’s own Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, under which all arms exports are assessed, states that export licences should not be issued if there is a “clear risk” arms exports might be used in a “serious violation of international humanitarian law”. The Arms Trade Treaty, to which Britain is a State Party, outlines that a State must not export arms if there is “potential” that they could be used to commit violations of international human rights or humanitarian law. It is inconceivable that after over 75 years of Israel’s regime of military occupation and apartheid, and nearly 10 months of Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza, with over 40,000 killed, that the government’s legal advice has adjudged that such a risk does not exist. 

In January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the world’s highest court, found it plausible that Israel is breaching the Genocide Convention in its assault on Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has ignored the binding interim measures adopted by the Court. In a separate opinion issued last week, the ICJ ordered Israel to end its illegal military occupation of Palestinian land.  

In April, the UN Human Rights Council called on all states “to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel” as an urgent measure to prevent further violations of international law. In June, UN experts announced that States and companies must end arms transfers to Israel immediately or risk responsibility for human rights violations, “possibly including genocide”. They specified that this “must include indirect transfers through intermediary countries that could ultimately be used by Israeli forces, particularly in the ongoing attacks on Gaza.” 

The responsibility on all states not to aid Israel’s grave international crimes is clear. Britain must immediately end ALL arms trade with Israel. 

We demand the UK government abide by its domestic and international law obligations by immediately: 

1. Introducing a comprehensive military embargo to end the two-way arms trade with Israel. 
2. Ending all further military assistance to Israel, including through the RAF base in Akrotiri. 

Palestinians in Gaza cannot wait any longer for the UK government to live up to its responsibilities not to aid and abet their slaughter. How many thousands more must be killed before David Lammy will act and stop arming Israel?  

Campaign Against Arms Trade 

Palestine Solidarity Campaign 

War on Want