Britain suspending less than 10 percent of arms licences is a drop in the ocean

The situation in Gaza has reached a critical point, where the actions of the Israeli military must be understood not as isolated incidents, but as an existential threat to the Palestinian people that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) says could plausibly amount to genocide.

Israel’s ongoing bombardment and military offensive; targeting of civilians, hospitals, healthcare systems and schools; forced displacement, and use of starvation as a weapon of war are all components that will make Gaza uninhabitable for human life, even if a ceasefire is achieved.

For 11 months, humanitarian organisations have raised the alarm about Israel’s potential violations of international law, including the blocking of access for aid operations, restrictions on essential resources, and targeting of aid workers, convoys and compounds.

The ICJ’s warning about a potential genocide in Gaza should have been a wake-up call for the UK government.

As a party to the Genocide Convention, the UK is bound to ensure it is not complicit in violations of this treaty. After the ICJ’s finding, there should have been an immediate arms ban targeting Israel. Instead, shamefully, more than seven months later, a suspension of a mere 30 arms export licences was announced this week.

While the UK government is finally acting upon the growing evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza, this is not a win; this is the bare minimum. 

Suspending 30 arms licences out of 350 is a drop in the ocean. Britain can do more. It must do more. 

Alarming inaction

If, as this government acknowledges, there is a “clear risk” that certain military exports to Israel could be used to violate international humanitarian law then it must apply its own obligations fully and ban all arms sales.  

The decision not to suspend all sales – particularly the exemption of parts used in F-35 fighter jets, the UK’s most significant arms export to the Israeli military – is deeply concerning. These very weapons were used in one of the most egregious attacks in recent months on a “safe zone”. The “clear risk” undoubtedly extends to F-35 parts. 

As 90 percent of Gaza’s population, including my colleagues in Action For Humanity, have been forced to flee their homes under relentless bombardment, with no safe place to go, the UK’s inaction is alarming.  

Unless the UK government urgently demands that Israel allow people to return to their homes and rebuild, as required by international law, there remains a very real risk that this mass forced displacement will become permanent – driven, in part, by British-supplied weapons. 

In its manifesto before the last election, the now-governing Labour Party said it was committed to upholding international law. It is high time the new government followed through on this promise. 

More than seven months after the ICJ ordered “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip from the risk of genocide, Israel has failed to take even the bare minimum steps to comply. This impunity is why it has now launched its largest assault on the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada. 

I fear we are witnessing the “Gazafication” of the West Bank, in an attempt to erase the Palestinian people and dismantle the components that make life liveable. And the UK government is shamefully complicit.