Over the past year, the UK exported £18.2 million ($23.4 million) worth of arms to Israel, including components for the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet, which Britain co-produces with the US.
A potential suspension of arms sales to Israel by Britain will not take place until later in the summer, according to the British newspaper The Times.
British ministers are reportedly evaluating which weapon deliveries could be halted due to their potential connection to Israeli war crimes in its ongoing genocidal war on Gaza.
The investigation and decision-making process is anticipated to take several weeks.
‘No Blanket Blan’
This development follows a question from a Green Party member of parliament last week about whether all UK arms exports to Israel would be halted.
In response, Foreign Minister David Lammy said that “Israel is a country surrounded by people who would love to see its annihilation. It is being attacked by the Houthis, missiles are being fired from Hezbollah, notwithstanding the desire for Hamas to wipe Israel off the map.”
“For those reasons, it would not be right to have a blanket ban between our country and Israel,” Lammy reportedly added.
UK Attorney General Richard Hermer KC visited Israel last week after the government lifted previous objections to an International Criminal Court (ICC) request for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the Gaza Strip has become the “world’s largest extermination camp,” and Israel has committed atrocities that will “outshine Hitler.”https://t.co/gWoBlWD5gV pic.twitter.com/kgthVZ3qrm
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) July 30, 2024
Hermer has previously criticized Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, describing it as “deeply damaging” and “wholly contrary to the values of tikkun olam (repairing the world) that I grew up with and continue to guide me.”
Hermer, along with other prominent Jewish lawyers in the UK, called for Israeli restraint following October 7.
Philippe Sands KC, another signatory who has represented Palestinians at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), recently argued for halting UK arms sales to Israel following an ICJ opinion on ending the occupation of the West Bank.
Over the past year, the UK exported £18.2 million ($23.4 million) worth of arms to Israel, including components for the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet, which Britain co-produces with the US.
The F-35 is believed to have been used in the Gaza war, which has resulted in over 39,000 deaths according to local officials.
Several countries, including Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain, and Belgium, have announced they will stop shipping weapons to Israel.
The US government said it had requested additional information from Israel regarding reports of its bombing of a drinking water reservoir in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.https://t.co/9gD25TM7N3 pic.twitter.com/88Py5RWE6j
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) July 30, 2024
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 39,400 Palestinians have been killed, and 90,996 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
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Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, MEMO)
“Israel is a country surrounded by people who would love to see its annihilation. It is being attacked by the Houthis, missiles are being fired from Hezbollah,notwithstanding the desire for Hamas to wipe Israel off the map.”
This summarize it all. An alien entity that has been committing massacres, and relying on the West’s support to establish and sustain its existence. Furthermore, the indigenous people of the middle east want to destroy it and expell the Zionists from the area. Isn’t it still not obvious that Zionists are merely intruders, killers and land thieves? This entity, the cancer of Middle East, has to be eliminated. Let the Zionists crawl back to the holes they emerged from.