UK suspends arms export licences to Israel after review

[pellinore]

The UK has broken with the Biden administration on a significant part of their tightly coordinated policy towards Israel by announcing it is suspending some arms export licences to Israel because of a “clear risk” they may be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

The Foreign Office said a two-month internal review had raised concerns about the way Israel had conducted itself in the conflict in Gaza and that the decision specifically related to concerns around the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.

No definitive conclusion has been reached about whether UK arms export licences have contributed to the destruction in the territory. But the scale of the devastation and the number of civilian deaths caused great concern, the Foreign Office said.

UK suspends 30 arms export licences to Israel after review | Foreign policy | The Guardian

Edited September 2 by pellinore

[A rather obscure Bassoon]

Starmer clearly facilitating the terrorist loving left,

 

[+and-then]

I wonder how strenuously these nations would pursue such things if Israel, in turn, refused to sell tech advancements there.  They don't call it the Start-up Nation for nothing.

[CrimsonKing]

31 minutes ago, A rather obscure Bassoon said:

Starmer clearly facilitating the terrorist loving left,

 

https://nypost.com/2024/09/02/us-news/kamala-harris-to-chart-new-direction-on-israel-from-biden-could-condition-further-aid/

Kamala's already talking about it as well.

[Claira]

How thoughtful of them to make these announcements at the same time we're burying the hostages Hamas just executed.

"Our hearts go out to the grieving parents, oh and by the way...."

[Claira]

The United Kingdom’s decision to suspend arms sales earmarked for Gaza is shameful and will not “change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

Hamas is “a genocidal terrorist organization that savagely murdered 1,200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens,” he wrote in an English-language post on X.

“Just as Britain’s heroic stand against the Nazis is seen today as having been vital in defending our common civilization, so too will history judge Israel’s stand against Hamas and Iran’s axis of terror... With or without British arms, Israel will win this war and secure our common future,” Netanyahu wrote.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-817548

[L.A.T.1961]

Another ill thought out policy by our new government.

Its not a good idea to send a message to the aggressors that they can let the international community make life easier for them. 

This is the same as negotiating with hostage takers. It just provides encouragement, something the Labour party don't seem to grasp.

[Ajay0]

The UK has played a major role in the formation of Israel and it had publicly pledged to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” there in the Balfour declaration. 

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/11/2/more-than-a-century-on-the-balfour-declaration-explained#:~:text=The Balfour Declaration%2C which resulted,for the Jewish people” there.

Quote

 

The Balfour Declaration (“Balfour’s promise” in Arabic) was a public pledge by Britain in 1917 declaring its aim to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.

The statement came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community.

It was made during World War I (1914-1918) and was included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

 

 

Imho, it would have been better for the Jews to continue in Europe in consideration of their religious and cultural similarites , inspite of the racial and cultural prejudices the Jews faced there. Much of the scientific, cultural and entrepreneurial productivity in Europe stemmed from Jewish contributions. The same for Jews who had prospered in Arab and Islamic states as well as India. India is considered to be the only country on earth which has never persecuted its jewish population. 

After the creation of Israel, many Jews in Arab and Islamic states started facing unprecedented discrimination and faced financial ruin. Most of them left for Israel . Many Jews in India left for Israel as well reducing the rich multicultural spectrum of Indian society.

[+and-then]

On 9/4/2024 at 12:14 AM, Ajay0 said:

After the creation of Israel, many Jews in Arab and Islamic states started facing unprecedented discrimination and faced financial ruin.

They faced that reality in every community they ever thrived in.  It had very little to do with their return to their ancestral homeland.  They were blamed for every ill of any society they became a productive part of, and THAT in the main, is the reason they kept the hope alive to return to their land.  Anyone who doubts that should look at what they've faced just since re-settling the land.  Those who hate them are again "raising up the head" to try once again to end them.  Watch them fail - AGAIN - just as they always have in the past. 

[Claira]

Meanwhile in Germany:

Germany’s federal government continues to ignore Israeli requests to purchase weapons, according to a Sunday report in the mass circulation daily Bild. The paper wrote that “However, sales of heavy weapons systems to the Emirate of Qatar – one of the most important supporters of the terrorist group Hamas – were approved.”

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-820260