The Green Party has written to the Foreign Secretary to urge the UK government to end the sales of arms to Israel by UK companies and officially recognise the state of Palestine in the wake of an alarming escalation of violence in the region.
In a letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley has expressed the Green Party’s deep concern with the loss of life in Israel and Palestine and urged the Foreign Office to issue much stronger and even-handed condemnation of those provoking violence. [1]
The letter cites figures from the Campaign Against Arms Trade which shows the UK has licensed £400 million worth of arms to Israel since 2015 and that some of these arms exported from the UK have previously been implicated in previous atrocities against Palestine. [2]
In the letter, Bartley also cites a 2018 Early Day Motion, signed by 73 cross-party MPs, which notes that licences had been granted in the previous two years to export arms to Israel, despite the fact that the consolidated criteria on arms exports precludes this “where there is a risk that items must be used for internal repression or in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law and considering the need not to affect adversely regional stability in any significant way.” [3]
Bartley said:
“The recent escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine has once again shocked the world and we urge the UK government to do whatever it can to actively support de-escalation. The seriousness of the situation demands more than words.
“The most important action the government could take right now is to immediately put a stop to the sale of arms to Israel from UK companies.
“Hundreds of millions of pounds' worth of arms have been sold to Israel since 2015. These may have been used to cause suffering and misery and have served no purpose at all in achieving peace in the region.
“It is time for us to end our complicity in Israel repression in the occupied territories in Palestine and to end all sales of arms and related equipment to Israel by companies based in the UK.”
ENDS
Notes
1
The full letter can be read here
2
3
https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/51776/uk-arms-exports-to-israel