Statement: Israel arms embargo urgently needed to halt spiralling escalation in Middle East

Following a year of impunity for genocide in Gaza, Israel’s devastating bombardment and ground invasion of Lebanon and the Iranian missile attack on Israel, is the escalation that was foreseen and warned of. 

The West’s failure to hold Israel to account for its crimes, and failure to stop the vast supply of weapons, has been the fuel to a fire which has engulfed the region. 

We call for an immediate global two-way embargo on arms transfers to Israel. We call on all countries involved in producing F-35 fighter jets, including the UK and US, to halt the transfer of these jets and components to Israel. 

UK political leaders, from both Labour and Conservative governments, have engaged in an indescribable level of recklessness and self-interest in their approach to this conflict. Neither party could bring themselves to call for a ceasefire for months, despite the immediate catastrophic loss of life in Gaza. 

Western leaders actively spread the delusion that Israel’s unprecedented bombardment and destruction of Gaza would bring ‘peace’. The reality of the last year has been a daily streamed nightmare: genocide; crimes against humanity; torture; starvation. 

Israel’s occupation and apartheid of Palestine are purposefully written out of the narrative, for example when former Foreign Secretary David Cameron couldn’t bring himself to admit that even the UK government’s own position is that Israel is occupying Gaza (Q601). 

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have already killed more than 1,000 people, and displaced 1.2 million, around a fifth of the total population. The explosion of thousands of pagers and electronic devices across Lebanon in September killed twelve people and injured thousands. This was an inherently indiscriminate and terrorising attack, which violated the international humanitarian law prohibition on booby-trapping everyday objects. 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s statement this week showed once again that our government affords Israel irrational exceptionalism, whereby it is deemed to be the only state in this conflict possessing the right to self-defence. As Starmer stated “Britain stands full square against such violence” when it is committed by Iran or Hezbollah, but the bombing to death of 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza or the invasion of Lebanon by Israel will apparently never be worth condemning. 

Calls for ceasefire and diplomacy in Gaza and in Lebanon by western leaders, including the UK government, are meaningless if not backed by consequences. The UK could play a real and significant role by going beyond partial suspension to a full arms embargo, including halting all F-35 components, and pressuring the US and other partners into following suit. 

Our hope for a just and peaceful future rests with our communities in the UK and across the world who have held our governments to account, refused to accept the logic of genocide and elimination, and who continue to fight with love and solidarity for a Free Palestine, Free Lebanon.