Jonathan Reynolds has announced the Labour government seeks to deepen commerce with Israel, continuing the policy of his Conservative predecessor, Kemi Badenoch.
Trade negotiations between the UK and Israel seek to establish a new bilateral agreement and have been ongoing since 2022. In the talks Reynolds is dealing with a minister in Tel Aviv, Nir Barkat, who is one of the more extreme proponents of Israel’s brutal war in Gaza.
The government’s announcement was made two days after Israel killed over 30 Palestinians in an airstrike on a school housing displaced people in central Gaza.
As Israel continues its mass attacks against Palestinians, which have killed tens of thousands, Britain’s Department for Business and Trade says “Our teams will be entering negotiating rooms as soon as possible, laser-focused on creating new opportunities for UK firms”.
While the International Criminal Court seeks arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, British embassy officials in Israel are writing about the “tremendous opportunity for collaboration between Israeli and British companies”.
Israel lobby
Reynolds is a personal recipient of funding from Britain’s Israel lobby. He has been on two visits to the country organised by parliamentary lobby group Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), of which he is a vice-chair.
On a 2018 visit, Reynolds accepted a small donation (of £100) directly from Israel’s foreign ministry, from whom he also accepted hospitality during his earlier trip in 2011.
LFI refuses to declare its funders. Given that organisations linked directly or indirectly to the Israeli state may fund LFI, this raises the possibility of a conflict of interest for the trade secretary.
Reynolds wrote before taking office that he opposes the expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements and supports the creation of a Palestinian state.
Yet now he also oversees Britain’s arms exports to Israel, which the new government has refused to suspend. Reynolds, the MP for Stalybridge & Hyde near Manchester, failed to support the Gaza ceasefire resolution in parliament last November.
RELATED
Trade partner
Reynolds told the media last week that “I… have spoken to my counterpart the Israeli trade minister because we’ve inherited a process in terms of improving the trade relationship that we have with Israel”.
The trade secretary’s negotiating partner, Nir Barkat, is the former mayor of Jerusalem and now economy minister who is tipped to take over from Benjamin Netanyahu as leader of the Likud party.
Barkat, whose views on the Gaza war have received much less Western media attention than Netanyahu’s more far-right ministers, opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state and has said Iran is a “legitimate target” for Israeli missile attacks.
The minister has also been outspoken in support of Israel’s attacks on Palestinians. In a media interview in April, Barkat used air quotes as he spoke of “the innocent people in Gaza”, suggesting he does not believe there are innocent people in the besieged territory.
“Whoever thinks of giving the prize of a Palestinian state after October 7 will find they don’t have a government,” Barkat warned in January. He also declared his opposition to the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza while Hamas held Israeli hostages.
‘We are too considerate’
Last December, Barkat rebuked Netanyahu over his war policy, claiming Israeli soldiers’ lives on the ground were being endangered in Gaza since “the number of air force bombardments has fallen dramatically”.
“We are too nice, and we are too considerate. And the bottom line is that our soldiers, the fighters, take disproportionate risks and we pay a heavy price”, he told the media. “The lives of our fighters are more important than the lives of the Gazans”, he tweeted.
This was at a time when the Israeli army had lost 154 soldiers in Gaza, while over 20,000 Palestinians had been killed.
Tom Wills, the director of the Trade Justice Movement, told Declassified: “It defies belief that Labour has chosen to continue pursuing a trade agreement with Israel. Instead of seeking closer trade ties, the UK should express its opposition to genocide, and its support of the International Court of Justice, by suspending trade privileges with Israel.”
He added: “The UK has a moral obligation to ensure that it is not complicit in Israel’s ongoing violations of international law. It is impossible to see how continuing trade negotiations will achieve that outcome.”
A recent legal review of UK policy towards Israel found that it is likely Britain’s trade relationship with Israel has helped to facilitate its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.
Round six
In negotiating a free trade accord with Israel, Britain is seeking to replace treaties signed with various countries it has lost due to Brexit.
Five rounds of talks between British and Israeli officials were held under the Conservative government. The latest round, held in April, began seven days after three British aid workers were killed by the Israeli army in Gaza.
Labour and Israel will likely hold the sixth round in the autumn.
British officials are losing no time in identifying new commercial opportunities for UK firms. Ronee Isaacson, the head of exports at the British embassy in Tel Aviv, notes “a wealth of opportunities across the infrastructure value chain”.
This includes the planned new Tel Aviv metro, a massive project worth $50bn. To secure contracts, “the timing is critical”, she wrote on 13 August.
RELATED
‘Milestone’
Sanctions against Israel due to war crimes in Gaza are completely off the UK government agenda, unlike those imposed on Russia in 2022 over its invasion of Ukraine.
On 31 July, the British Council announced a £1.8m programme to offer researchers from Israel and the UK the opportunity to work together on scientific research.
This is “a significant milestone, elevating the already fruitful collaboration between our research communities,” said British ambassador to Israel Simon Walters.
In June, the UK government’s Innovation Funding Service opened a new competition for UK organisations to apply for up to £1m to develop industrial research projects with the Israel Innovation Authority.
UK trade relations with Israel are small-scale, highlighting how easy it would be for British ministers to curb them if they wanted. Israel is Britain’s 41st largest trade partner, accounting for just 0.3 percent of total UK trade.
Britain’s trade with Russia was more than double the current level with Israel before sanctions were imposed on Moscow.
A government spokesperson told Declassified: “Boosting growth and jobs is at the heart of our mission, so it is right that we work to build on the £6.1bn of trade and 38,000 British jobs that the UK-Israel relationship already provides.
“This doesn’t affect our call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to protect civilians, and our review to assess Israel’s compliance with International Humanitarian Law remains ongoing, which the foreign secretary initiated on day one in office.”
Jonathan Reynolds was asked to comment.
