Arms campaigners and human rights groups welcome ban, but say move does not go far enough

The UK has suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel following a review under the new Labour government which found that British-made weapons may have been used in the violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

Arms campaigners and rights advocates who have pressed for a full suspension of arms sales to Israel for months welcomed the decision, but criticised the continued export of F-35 fighter jet components which one called “a workhorse of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign”.

The announcement cames hours before two organisations which have challenged the UK government in the High Court over the continued exports were set to pursue fresh legal action in an attempt to force the exports to stop immediately.

Lawyers with the UK-based Global Legan Action Network (Glan) and the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq said they told the government last week of their intent to request an emergency order and had planned to do this at a Tuesday morning hearing.

Anna Stavrianakis, director of research and strategy at UK-based Shadow World Investigations and professor of international relations at the University of Sussex, told Middle East Eye that without the suspension of the F-35 components, the statement “seems more like an attempt to mollify critics than a meaningful restriction on Israel’s ability to commit genocide”.

  • @[email protected]English
    20•12 days ago

    30 arms exports out of 350, and gives an exception for the components required for F-35Bs which were used to bomb a school the same day this was announced.

    Lammy even said this will have a negligible impact on Israeli military power.

    This is a clear attempt at trying to turn the public on-side whilst collaborating with Israel to ensure the bombs keep dropping more than ever. Especially suspicious is that some of the licenses being suspended appear to be for arms that are already being limited by Palestine Action’s sabotage campaign.

    It’s still 30 less licenses than last week, but it’s too little and too late. Labour has an institutional islamophobia problem and as such is not interested at all in leveraging its position to end the genocide.

    • @AceticonEnglish
      0•12 days ago

      New Labour politicians have a massive debt to Israeli-linked Jewish Groups in the UK for the Anti-Semitism slander campaign against Corbyn and the Labour Party during his leadership that lost Labour an election and brought him down as leader of the party to be replaced by a New Labour leader (who promptly started a pogrom against Leftwingers in the party).

      Of course, as is tradition in England (and because in the recent elections they lost 10 Parliament seats to people who campaigned as independents exactly because of New Labour’s pro-Zionist “No Genocide is too great” policies), they’re doing a bit public opinion management with a loudly announced measure that de facto does nothing.

      If there’s one thing that over a decade of living in Britain has taught me was to always look behind the curtain when it comes to grand very public gestures by the local politicians, the more the noise they make about their “great measure” the more the need to dig out the part of the story they’re not telling people about.

    • @[email protected]English
      0•12 days ago

      Labour has a far far less of an islamaphobia issue than the Conservatives.

      Labour did previously have a antisemitism issue however, and undoubtedly they’re hesitant to do anything which might be tagged antisemitic (even if it’s not).

      But despite that, they haven’t been in power for long and have already done far more than the Tories did.

      • @[email protected]English
        4•12 days ago

        Weird deflection, because it’s common knowledge that the Tories are islamophobic and evil, but the moment anyone mentions this about Labour, Starmerite sycophants like you storm in to cover it up.

        Jeremy Corbyn was vindicated for his defence of Palestine, where will you be in 30 years when someone asks what you did about the genocide?

        • @[email protected]English
          0•12 days ago

          Not a “Starmerite sycophant” whatever the hell that is. I am not a fervent supporter of any political party. I simply do not believe that Labour are inherently islamophobic - I’ve seen nothing to suggest that. Im not trying to cover anything up or deflect by saying that the Tories are Islamophobic. It’s relevant because the Tories have been in power and controlling foreign policy up until a month or so ago. If the Tories were still in charge, there would have been no change to the UK gov’s position.

          Not that I think that Islamaphobia is the driving factor behind support for Israel, nor do I pretend to fully understand, besides the obvious fact that they’re an existing ally and were attacked by terrorism which kicked this off.

          The tide is turning against the Israelian government’s scorched-earth policy but it’s taking too long, especially from the US side. Seemingly the Israelian people are also taking issue with their government’s position which is more pressure than we can exert from our side.

          Btw Jeremy Corbyn was vindicated for what, defending Hamas and Hezbollah? Plenty of people have stood up for Palestine over the years without standing up for Hamas. Palestinians deserve to be free, not controlled by Hamas terrorists.

  • @UnderpantsWeevilEnglish
    17•13 days ago

    Finally, a little bit of that Law and Order people love to campaign on

    • Maeve
      13•13 days ago

      I’d love it if my own nation would step up and do the bare minimum right thing.

  • @[email protected]English
    5•12 days ago

    Every little bit helps! At-least UK is doing something about in the US we are like 800 packages shipped and delivered to kill civilians! Ffs