UK announces partial ban on arms exports to Israel

Foreign Secretary says 30 export licences suspended over 'clear risk' they could be used in 'serious violation' of international law

British Foreign Minister David Lammy said 'this is not a blanket ban, this is not an arms embargo'. AFP

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Britain has announced an arms embargo on 30 weapons export licences to Israel that UK authorities said might have been used to commit “serious violations” of international humanitarian law.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the House of Commons that the evidence meant Britain had no choice but to impose the ban.

Since Labour entered power in July there has been speculation that it might impose the ban. It came under pressure during the general election campaign over its support for Israel while civilians were being killed in large numbers in Gaza. The party also lost four seats to independent MPs who stood on a specific pro-Palestinian stance.

With Defence Secretary John Healey at his side, Mr Lammy said it was the government's “legal duty to review this export licence”.

While the government’s decision was not “a determination of guilt”, it had been forced into it after the vast scale of violence in Gaza, in which more than 40,700 Palestinians have been killed since October last year, health authorities in the enclave say.

“It is with regret that I inform the House today, the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violations of international humanitarian law,” Mr Lammy said.

The government will publish in full precisely what has been banned, but they are 30 exports licences of 350 issued to UK defence companies under the arms control act.

It includes equipment that Britain assessed is being used in Gaza, “such as important components which go into military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones”, and items that “facilitate ground targeting”.

Mr Lammy was keen to emphasise that it was not a full arms embargo that he said had been imposed by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1982, following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. He also raised other licence refusals imposed by Britain in 2009 and 2014.

“This is not a blanket ban, this is not an arms embargo,” he said, later adding that Israel had the right to defend itself against Hezbollah and Hamas, but it was “for items which were used in the current conflict in Gaza”.

He said exports of parts for the advanced F-35 fighters were not in the ban as that would undermine the global F-35 “flight supply chain that is vital to the security of the UK and our allies”.

“Let me leave this house in no doubt the UK continues to support Israel's right self-defence in accordance with international law,” he added.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that the decision was disappointing and that it "sends a very problematic message" to Hamas and its patrons in Iran.

Unlike the US, Britain's government does not give arms directly to Israel but rather issues licences for companies to sell weapons, with input from lawyers on whether they complied with international law.

Inside the Commons, there was largely broad support for the decision, with no condemnation from the Conservative Party and a few left-wing MPs such as Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, saying it did not go far enough.

Mike Martin, a former British army officer who served in Afghanistan and who is now a Liberal Democrats MP, welcomed the news that meant Britain had “doubts [over] Israel’s compliance to certain aspects of international law”.

Mr Lammy commissioned a thorough review into Israel’s compliance with that law on the day he entered office. He has also travelled twice to the country and the occupied West Bank to assess the situation first hand.

On Monday, he warned MPs that Israel's actions in Gaza “continue to lead to immense loss of civilian life, widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure”. But it was difficult to determine that precise cause of civilian deaths “because there is insufficient information, either from Israel or other reliable sources, to verify such claims”.

Mr Lammy also said Israel could do much more to ensure that food and medical supplies reached civilians in Gaza “in light of the appalling humanitarian situation”.

He decried the “credible claims of mistreatment of detainees” that the International Red Cross had been unable to investigate after being denied access detention facilities

Britain’s decision will also result in disagreement with Washington which has insisted that there is no basis in international humanitarian law to suspend arms exports.

Mr Lammy also announced new sanctions on four members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps from Iran who had been “supporting Iranian proxy actions in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon”.

F-35 programme

The ban represents about a tenth of arms exports from Britain to Israel which since 2008 has sold arms worth £576 million ($757.2 million) to the country.

The refusal to include the F-35 stealth fighters in the embargo, aircraft that are used extensively by Israel to bomb Gaza as well as Lebanon and Syria, was justified by Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

He said the F-35 programme was “integral to international security” and that UK parts for the fighter “will be excluded from this decision, except where going directly to Israel”.

Any suspension of pooled parts for the aircraft was “not possible without having a significant effect on the global F35 fleet with serious implications for international peace and security”, Mr Reynolds said.