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04-09-2024
LONDON: The UK has suspended some arms sales to Israel, saying there is a “clear risk” the equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international law.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK would be suspending 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, affecting equipment such as parts for fighter jets, helicopters and drones.
An Israeli minister told media that the decision sent the “wrong message” and was “disappointing”, but human rights group Amnesty International UK called the suspension “too limited”.
Lammy said the UK continued to support Israel’s right to defend itself, and this did not amount to an arms embargo.
Speaking to Radio 4, Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs, Amichai Chikli, said the decision had come “at a very sensitive moment” when Israelis were burying six people “murdered in Hamas tunnels”.
“I think we need to combat terrorism together,” he told the World Tonight program. “The fight against Isis (the Islamic State group), and al-Qaeda and Hamas, it’s the same war between the Western civilization and radical Islam.
“The threat that is coming from Hamas is also an inner threat that you are facing in the streets of the UK.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in response to the decision that Israel operated according to international law.
Writing on social media, the chief rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, said the move “beggars belief” and “feeds the falsehood that Israel is in breach of International Humanitarian Law”.
“Sadly, this announcement will serve to encourage our shared enemies,” he added.
Chief executive of Amnesty International UK, Sacha Deshmukh, criticized the restrictions as “too limited and riddled with loopholes”.
The non-profit organization has continuously called for a ceasefire and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“Today’s decision means that while ministers apparently accept that Israel may be committing war crimes in Gaza, (the government) is nevertheless continuing to risk complicity in war crimes, apartheid and possible genocide by Israeli forces in Gaza,” he said.
Western governments have been coming under growing pressure to halt arms sales to Israel over how it is waging the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The foreign secretary said many MPs, lawyers and international organizations had raised concerns about British arms export licensing to Israel.
He immediately sought a review of British arms exports to Israel after the Labour government took office in July, Lammy added.
He said the review did not and “could not arbitrate on whether or not Israel has breached international humanitarian law” and this was “not a determination of innocence or guilt” but he said the government had its own legal duty to review all exports licences.
Lammy said: “The assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation on international humanitarian law.”
He said the partial ban covered items “which could be used in the current conflict in Gaza”.
In a written summary of its decision, the government cited Israel’s approach to Gaza aid and treatment of detainees as key factors in its decision. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
