Whenever I see the heart-wrenching aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza – a Palestinian mother cradling the lifeless body of her child; a refugee camp engulfed by fire – I ask myself the same question. Were British-made weapons used to inflict this horror?
Almost certainly, the answer at times is “yes”. Raining down hell on Gaza is Israel’s fleet of F-35 fighter jets, described by their manufacturer as the “most lethal fighter jet in the world”. Each jet is made, in part, in Britain, in a deal the Campaign Against the Arms Trade estimates to be worth £368m.
This is just one example of Israel’s use of British-made arms in its assault on Gaza. But after almost 10 months and 38,000 Palestinians killed, to their eternal shame the Conservatives left office refusing to suspend arms sales. This responsibility now falls to Labour.
Our new government must do the right thing and stop enabling Israeli war crimes. That is why today, as a backbench Labour MP, I am tabling an amendment to the king’s speech calling on colleagues to uphold international law and suspend arms sales to Israel.
There is no time to waste. This past week has been “one of the deadliest” since Israel’s assault began, according to Unrwa, the UN aid agency for Palestinians. We must urgently pull every lever and strain every sinew to pressure the Israeli government to abide by international law and end this assault. This is not simply a moral duty, but a legal one too.
Consider again the F-35. The Israeli military has armed these jets with 2,000lb bombs, explosives with a lethal radius up to 365m – an area the equivalent of 58 football pitches. A recent UN report identified these bombs as having been used in “emblematic” cases of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Gaza that “led to high numbers of civilian fatalities and widespread destruction of civilian objects”. In lawyerly understatement, the UN said this raises “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 if there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.” Without doubt this threshold has been met, hence why UN experts have called for arms exports to Israel to immediately stop.
And it is not just F-35s at risk of being used in violation of international law. Since 2015, Conservative governments have licensed more than £490m in “standard licences” to the Israeli military, with an unknown quantity of military equipment – including parts for Israeli F-35 fighter jets – transferred under secretive “open licences”. At stake isn’t just the integrity of UK laws, but the whole international legal system too.
In January, the international court of justice ruled that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza. As a signatory, the UK government is legally obliged to prevent and punish genocide, an obligation our previous government flagrantly ignored, as it armed Israel, opposed an immediate ceasefire, and suspended funding to Unrwa, even as famine broke out in the besieged enclave.
In May, the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court applied for arrest warrants for war crimes for Israeli and Hamas leaders, only for the Conservative government to again undermine international law and challenge the ICC’s jurisdiction.
At the time, Labour opposed this, with Lammy saying: “The Conservatives have backtracked on their commitment to the rule of law. Labour supports the independence of international courts. The prosecutor’s application for warrants, as well as the ICC’s jurisdiction, is a matter for the ICC.” That commitment to international law must be upheld, even if President Biden objects. That is why my amendment also calls on the government to drop the UK’s challenge to the ICC issuing arrest warrants.
These are hardly radical demands. In response to past Israeli assaults, UK 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 assault has inflicted death and destruction on the Palestinian people far exceeding anything witnessed before and yet the Conservative government refused to act. The new government should not need telling twice.
Labour’s landslide earlier this month masked widespread discontent at the party’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza, particularly among British Muslim communities. If the new government intends to turn a new leaf, the first step it should take is banning arms sales to Israel – a move backed by 56% of the public.
Up until now, I have been challenging a Conservative government for its complicity in crimes against the Palestinian people. That complicity must end now that we have a Labour government. So I urge colleagues: uphold international law, suspend arms sales to Israel, and back my amendment.
Zarah Sultana is the Labour MP for Coventry South
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