This week, the UK government finally decided to suspend some arms export licences to Israel, almost 11 months after the fighting began.
Speaking in parliament, foreign secretary David Lammy announced that “around 30 from a total of approximately 350” arms export licences to Israel had been frozen due to a “clear risk that they might be used to commit” war crimes.
The restrictions include equipment that could be used “in the current conflict in Gaza, such as important components which go into military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones, as well as items which facilitate ground targeting”.
By contrast, the previous Conservative government did not cancel any licences for military goods to be sent to Israel between 7 October and the general election.
The latest restrictions consequently indicate that former ministers including Rishi Sunak and David Cameron, as well as Conservative leadership contenders James Cleverly and Kemi Badenoch, were complicit in Israel’s atrocities.
In particular, there is mounting evidence that Lammy’s predecessor, Lord Cameron, “sat on advice” he received that Israel was breaching international humanitarian law (IHL) in Gaza.
‘So obvious’
In January, the Conservative government had 28 extant “high-risk” licences with Israel marked as “most likely to be used by the IDF in offensive operations in Gaza” – a strikingly similar number to that which Lammy has suspended.
And back in March a senior Conservative MP, Alicia Kearns, was secretly recorded telling a Tory fundraiser that the Foreign Office’s legal advice “would mean the UK has to cease all arms sales to Israel without delay”.
A Foreign Office source has now come forward to expose how Cameron was in receipt of “similar” legal advice to that currently being used by Lammy “from at least February onwards”.
“The advice being sent through to the Foreign Office was clear that the breaches of IHL by Israel as the occupying power were so obvious that there was a danger of UK complicity if the licences were not withdrawn”, the source told the Guardian.
“The tragedy has to be considered: how many lives might have been saved if the arms export licences had been stopped then and not in September”, the source added.
To this end, it seems clear that Cameron misled both parliament and the public in claiming that the legal advice on Israel’s compliance with IHL was inconclusive.
It is thus remarkable that Lammy seemingly sought to cover for Cameron in his announcement of the suspension of some arms sales to Israel.
“Both my predecessor and all our major allies have repeatedly and forcefully raised these concerns with the Israeli government”, he said. “Regrettably, they have not been addressed satisfactorily”.
Supine
Lammy was even more concerned about Israel’s reaction, trying in vain to keep Benjamin Netanyahu happy. “I have made this decision with regret”, the Labour minister stressed. “It is in sorrow, not in anger”.
He emphasised “this is not a blanket ban. This is not an arms embargo… The action we are taking [will not] have a material impact on Israel’s security”.
Pointing to the historical trend that five other British governments had at some stage stopped arms sales to Israel, Lammy grovelled: “I have not gone as far as Margaret Thatcher went in 1982” when she imposed a total arms embargo in response to the invasion of Lebanon.
Crucially, Labour has not restricted supplies for Israel’s F-35 fighter jets, morbidly described by their manufacturers as “the most lethal” aircraft in the world. Around 15% of the plane is made in Britain.
Lammy told parliament that “suspending all licences for the F-35 programme would undermine the global F-35 supply chain that is vital for the security of the UK, our allies, and NATO”.
UK defence secretary John Healey also attempted to justify this decision, arguing that the British components go into “a global pool” and it’s therefore “hard to distinguish those [parts] that may go into Israeli jets”.
Labour has thus landed on an incoherent and untenable position. While it acknowledges that Israel is likely breaching international humanitarian law, it is going to continue to supply parts which could be used to commit or facilitate further atrocities.
Dearbhla Minogue, a lawyer for Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, told Declassified: “They’ve obviously assessed that parts going to Israel risk violating international law, and therefore I can’t see any reason for them not to ultimately include the F-35 parts in their decision”.
While the new measures clearly do not go far enough, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded furiously. “Days after Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, the UK government suspended thirty arms licences to Israel”, he declared.
“With or without British arms, Israel will win this war and secure our common future”, he added.
‘Tread very carefully’
Shortly before Lammy’s announcement, Danish media outlet Danwatch revealed that Israel used an F-35 for a devastating attack in Gaza.
The airstrike was launched by Israeli forces on the designated safe zone of Al-Mawasi, killing 90 people and injuring at least 300 more. Eleven named women and children were identified among those killed.
“There are people who have lost limbs everywhere. It is a scene that no human being can imagine”, one witness told French news outlet AFP.
This marked the first time that an F-35 jet has been directly linked to a specific air attack on Gaza, providing more evidence of British complicity in Israeli war crimes.
“If the UK government is admitting that British weapons might be involved in breaking international law, I don’t understand how it can justify [supplying parts for] F-35 fighter jets that have been dropping 2000lb bombs on Palestinians for months”, said Zarah Sultana MP.
The justification is probably that Washington would object. Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor, Robert C. O’Brien, warned last month: “I would tread very carefully. I would never presume to instruct a foreign government or give advice to a foreign government about how to conduct their affairs, but the F-35 is a joint project.
“That F-35 is going to Israel, it’s going to continue going to Israel, no matter what Turkey or the UK or any other country has to do with it.”
Speaking to the Policy Exchange think-tank, he said: “The US is not going to walk away from Israel, we aren’t going to put an arms embargo on Israel, and any of our allies that do are flirting with real danger and may imperil their ability and their own supply chains on the arms front.”
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Bombing British aid
While Lammy may feel he has managed to appease Washington for now, the implications of his announcement are far reaching.
Take, for instance, the government’s admission – after months of stonewalling – that Britain has been supplying parts for Israel’s F-16 fighter jets.
The licence was suspended the same day that Whitehall announced its existence, but the story should not stop there.
Declassified and others have been asking about this licence since January, when Israel bombed the residential compound of a British medical charity in Gaza using an F-16.
The Conservatives had repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether that F-16 contained British-made parts. It now seems that it did.
Meanwhile Lammy’s colleague, trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds, confirmed that Britain is suspending supplies of “parts for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)” used by Israel.
These are likely to be made by subsidiaries of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms firm, at its factories in the UK.
Campaign group Palestine Action has repeatedly tried to decommission these factories, arguing that they are complicit in war crimes.
The police responded by holding members of the group under counter-terrorism laws, even though an Elbit drone was used to kill three innocent British aid workers in Gaza.
Declassified asked Elbit if any of its supplies have been impacted by the suspension of export licences. It did not respond.
