JEREMY Corbyn has called on the Foreign Office to reveal which Israeli government representatives a minister met on a recent trip to the country.
Labour’s development minister in the Foreign Office, Anneliese Dodds, travelled to Israel as part of a three-day trip to the Middle East in December.
The UK Government said only that she would meet with “Israeli representatives”, while Dodds said she would meet "counterparts ... in Israel".
It was made clear, however, who from the Palestine side the Labour minister would meet: Prime Minister Dr Mohammad Mustafa and planning minister Dr Wael Zakout.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has refused three times to tell The National who Dodds met.
Now, Corbyn has said that the details should be revealed.
“Since she's going as a representative of this country, as a minister, I think it is only right that she should tell us who she met and why she met them,” the former Labour leader said.
“And if she can't say which Israeli ministers she met, then there's something very odd going on.”
The refusal to share details comes after the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several other Israeli officials for alleged war crimes.
“The UK government eventually, reluctantly, accepted the legal position that an ICC warrant has to be carried out under UK law,” Corbyn.
“I want to know what you were saying to Israeli representatives about that – because this is a government that was very late in even suggesting there could be a ceasefire. That uspended a number of armed licenses – but not the crucial ones which are parts for the F-35 jet.
“And there's been a huge number of flights from RAF Akrotiri [in Greece} and flying over Gaza.”
He added: “What for? And what's the information they're using. [There are] also a large number of flights leaving and going to Israel and coming back two hours later.”
Corbyn outlined that the ICC warrants are “very serious”, as is the ICJ provisional ruling which found Palestinians’ right to be protected from genocide faced a plausible risk.
“As I said at a big rally we held in London, the long arm of international law doesn't stop by just saying a statement such as these actions have genocidal consequences or the arrest warrant,” he said.
“There are also those that are complicit in it by knowingly supplying the weapons that can continue these acts of war crimes against the Palestinian people.”
Corbyn added: “Anneliese [Dodds] needs to tell us who she met and why she met, but above all, she needs to tell us when they're going to stop all arms sales to Israel.”
