UK PM Sunak to end arms sales to Israel due to pressure from lawmakers
Allegations over Israel’s non-compliance with international humanitarian law has promoted members of the British Parliament from various parties to weigh options of ending arms sales to Israel.
According to the British media, members of the Liberal Democrats Party, the Scottish National Party and a former UK national security adviser are mounting a heap of pressure on the United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to halt all arms sales to Israel.
The Prime Minister was persuaded by the members of parliament after Israel had released an airstrike that mistakenly killed British citizens among other seven aid workers in Gaza.
Last week, before the strike, a group of more than 130 Members of Parliament from multiple parties, and peers, reportedly wrote to Foreign Secretary David Cameron calling for an immediate suspension of export licences for arms sales to Israel, Jerusalem Post reported.
Responding to the recent incident, the Prime Minister said the UK is “very clear” with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding “set of rules and regulations” guiding their ”export licensing”.
He also maintained that Israel has always been aware of the international Humanitarian law binding on their arms licensing, which the UK government considers a priority.
“We’ve always had a very careful export licensing regime that we adhere to. There are a set of rules, regulations, and procedures that we’ll always follow,” the UK prime Minister Sunak said.
“And I’ve been consistently clear with Prime Minister Netanyahu since the start of this conflict that whilst of course we defend Israel’s right to defend itself and its people against attacks from Hamas, they have to do that in accordance with humanitarian law, protect civilian lives, get more aid into Gaza.”
In a recent report by BBC News, Business Minister Greg Hands estimated the UK arms exports to Israel to be worth £42 million (which is close to 197 million New Israel Shekel) last year. Greg, again, noted that this represents just about 0.02% of Israel’s military imports.
What Top UK government officials are saying about halting Arms Sales to Israel
One of the top conservative members of the parliament, Paul Bristow, refuted the idea of using British-made weapons in Gaza, especially if this breaks the “international Humanitarian law” and gets “British nationals killed”.
“If it says there is a clear risk that UK arms might be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law, it’s time to suspend the sale of those arms,” said another notable official, shadow foreign secretary of state for Foreign, Common Wealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom, David Lammy.
Meanwhile, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey has also allegedly said that Israel is ‘intentionally failing to listen to international pressure when it comes to calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war”.
In a previous report Hamas rejected possible ceasefire agreement options proposed by different countries seeking to restore peace in the middle east.
However, Israeli officials have also constantly denied not allowing aid into Gaza, saying that means to get humanitarian supplies into Gaza have always remained accessible on the part of Israel.
But, also from Israel’s claims, Hamas has kept “sabotaging efforts and preventing the humanitarian supplies from reaching civilians by creating crises”.
