UK arming Israel despite export suspension, report says
The UK is still giving military goods and arms to Israel, even though it suspended 30 arms export licences, according to a report containing Israeli import information, Middle East Eye reported on May 7th.
Information from the Israeli Tax Authority, cited by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Workers for a Free Palestine, and Progressive International, has revealed that 8,630 individual military weapons from Israel arrived in the UK, despite the suspension of licenses.
The military weapons are categorised as “bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles and similar munitions of war and parts thereof.”
In September 2024, the UK suspended the arms licences. This was part of a wider effort to prevent weapon use that might breach humanitarian law in Gaza. A report from the British Palestinian Committee (BPC) highlighted Britain’s major military ties to Israel’s Gaza offensive, the Middle East Eye reported on January 28th.
It stated that the UK government “has not been directly perpetrating violence in Gaza, it has played an influential role, not only through the validation of arms licences, but also through wider and deeper military collaboration with Israel.”
Shortly after the bans, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said “much of what we send is defensive in nature. It is not what we describe routinely as arms.” The authors of the report stated that based on the evidence “it appears that David Lammy has misled parliament and the public about arms shipments to Israel.” The Department for Business and Trade in the UK did not reply to a comment request.
A Foreign Office spokesperson told The Guardian “the remaining licences for Israel, the vast majority are not for the Israeli Defence Forces.” The representative added they are “for civilian purposes or re-export, and therefore are not used in the war in Gaza.”
Almost 24 MPs contacted Lammy, urging him to address parliament regarding the accusations from the study. “We urge the government to disclose the details of all arms exports to Israel since October 2023 and to immediately halt all arms exports to Israel,” they said.
The findings prompted ex-Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell to demand a thorough inquiry, The Jerusalem Post reported on May 8th. McDonnell declared “The government has shrouded its arms supplies to Israel in secrecy. They must finally come clean in response to this extremely concerning evidence and halt all British arms exports to Israel.”
MPs released a statement urging an immediate stop to “Netanyahu’s plan to annex Gaza and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people.” They stated the public “deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in crimes against humanity.”
Middle East Eye, The Guardian, The Jerusalem Post
