Keir Starmer must stop arms sales to Israel

Whenever I see the heartbreaking aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza – a Palestinian mother holding the lifeless body of her child, a refugee camp ablaze – I ask myself the same question. Were British weapons used in this horror?

The answer is almost certainly sometimes yes. Israel’s fleet of F-35 fighter jets, described by their manufacturer as “the world’s deadliest fighter jet,” is unleashing hell on Gaza. Each of these aircraft is partly made in Britain, and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade estimates the deal is worth £368 million.

This is just one example of the use of British weapons by Israel in its attack on Gaza. Yet after nearly 10 months and 38,000 Palestinians killed, to their eternal shame, the Conservatives left office without refusing to stop arms sales. That responsibility now lies with Labour.

Our new Government must do the right thing and stop supporting Israeli war crimes. That is why today, as a Labour backbencher, I am tabling an amendment to the King’s Speech calling on my colleagues to uphold international law and stop arms sales to Israel.

There is no time to lose. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, the past week has been “one of the deadliest” since the Israeli attack began. We must urgently pull out all the stops and use all our strength to urge the Israeli government to abide by international law and end this attack. This is not only a moral duty, but also a legal one.

Think again of the F-35. The Israeli military has armed these jets with 2,000-pound bombs, explosives with a lethal range of up to 365 meters – an area equivalent to 58 football fields. A recent UN report identified these bombs as “symbolic” cases of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Gaza that “resulted in a high number of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of civilian objects.” In lawyerly understatement, the UN said this raised “serious concerns under the laws of war.”

And this is where our arms export laws come in. As our new Foreign Secretary David Lammy himself said a few months ago: “The law is clear. British arms licences cannot be granted where there is a clear risk that the items could be used to commit or facilitate a serious breach of international humanitarian law.” Undoubtedly, that threshold has been reached, which is why UN experts have called for an immediate end to arms exports to Israel.

And it is not just the risk that F-35 fighter jets will be used in breach of international law. Since 2015, Conservative governments have granted over £490 million worth of “standard licences” to the Israeli military, and an unknown amount of military equipment – including parts for Israeli F-35 fighter jets – has been handed over under secret “open licences”. What is at stake is not just the integrity of British law, but the entire international legal system.

In January, the International Court of Justice ruled that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza. As a signatory to the accord, the British government has a legal obligation to prevent and punish genocide. Our previous government blatantly ignored that obligation by arming Israel, opposing an immediate ceasefire and cutting off funding to UNRWA even as famine broke out in the besieged enclave.

In May, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for war crimes against Israeli and Hamas leaders, but the conservative government again undermined international law and challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction.

At the time, Labour opposed it. Lammy said: “The Conservatives have moved away from their commitment to the rule of law. Labour supports the independence of international courts. The prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants and the jurisdiction of the ICC are matters for the ICC.” This commitment to international law must be maintained, even if President Biden objects. That is why my amendment also calls on the Government to drop the UK’s challenge to the ICC’s arrest warrants.

These are anything but radical demands. In response to previous Israeli attacks, British governments have suspended arms sales to Israel: Margaret Thatcher in 1982, Tony Blair in 2002, Gordon Brown in 2009 and David Cameron in 2014.

This Israeli attack has caused death and destruction to the Palestinian people beyond anything ever seen before, and yet the conservative government refused to act. The new government does not need to be told this twice.

Labour’s landslide victory earlier this month masked widespread discontent with the party’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza, particularly among British Muslims. If the new government wants to chart a new course, its first step should be to ban arms sales to Israel – a move supported by 56 percent of the public.

Until now, I have denounced a Conservative government for its complicity in crimes against the Palestinian people. That complicity must end now that we have a Labour government. That is why I call on my colleagues to respect international law, stop arms sales to Israel and support my amendment.

Zarah Sultana is Labour MP for Coventry South

Source: The guard