As the United States clears the way for the sale of $20bn of weapons to Israel, pressure on the United Kingdom to cease such arms sales has stepped up amid reports that some sales could be restricted in the coming months.
Between October 7, when Israel’s war on Gaza began, and the end of May, the UK granted more than 100 export licences for the sale of weapons and military equipment to Israel, official figures show. The value of these deals has not been revealed.
However, between 2008 and the end of 2023, the UK granted export licences for arms deals to Israel worth 576 million pounds ($740m). The total value of arms deals granted in 2023 is estimated at 18.2 million pounds – still far short of the more than 200 million pounds granted in 2017.
Pro-Palestine activists have called on the government to cease the sales of arms to Israel as its war on Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 people with thousands more missing and presumed dead under the rubble of buildings. More than 92,000 people have been injured.
Despite this, the previous Conservative government, which lost power to Labour in a landslide election in July, decided in May that there was no reason to suspend arms exports.
It cited the UK’s arms export rules, which state that export licences should not be granted if there is a “clear risk” that they would “facilitate a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)”, and said there was no evidence of this.
However, since the Labour Party came to power, its stance on the Gaza war has differed from that of its predecessor.
In recent weeks, Israeli and British news outlets have reported that the UK may be about to announce a partial suspension of arms exports to Israel.
Here’s what we know so far:
What does the UK supply to Israel?
The government does not provide military aid to Israel but instead issues licences for British companies to sell weapons.
Former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said in December last year – two months into the war on Gaza – that the UK’s exports of military goods to Israel were “relatively small”, amounting to 42 million pounds ($53.2m) in 2022 and 18 million pounds ($22.8m) in 2023.
By comparison, annually, the US gives Israel $3bn in military aid as part of a 10-year agreement. In November, the US passed an additional $14.5bn military aid package for Israel after the war on Gaza broke out on October 7.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that US exports amount to 69 percent of Israel’s total arms imports.
In Europe, Germany, which is Israel’s second-biggest provider of military aid after the US, exported weapons worth 326.5 million euros ($354m) to Israel in 2023, 10 times more than the year before.
What types of weapons does the UK sell to Israel?
The UK’s exports include explosive devices, assault rifles and components for F-35 fighter jets.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT)’s research has found that the UK produces “at least 15 percent of the value” of every US-made F-35 combat aircraft.
“This includes crucial elements like the rear fuselage, targeting lasers, bomb release mechanisms, and critical electronic systems,” the UK-based campaign group said on X in late July.
For the 39 F-35s delivered to Israel since 2016, there is “at least £364m worth of UK components, not counting spare parts. The planes still on order, plus ongoing support, will likely be worth as much again”, the group added.
The F-35 is the clearest way in which UK arms exports are directly involved in the genocide in Gaza. They could not fly without continuing support from the UK, as well as the US. Ending the supply of UK parts for Israeli F-35s, both new planes and spares, is essential.
— CAAT (@CAATuk) July 29, 2024
What has the UK’s new government said about arms exports?
Ahead of the general election on July 4, the then-shadow foreign secretary – now the foreign secretary – David Lammy called on the Conservative government to publish the legal advice it had received about granting export licences to Israel.
At the time, the government pushed back and said that the legal advice to ministers was confidential.
In a leaked recording to British newspaper The Observer, Alicia Kearns, a Conservative and the then-chair of the House of Commons select committee on foreign affairs, said at a party fundraiser at the end of March that government lawyers had found that Israel had breached IHL, but the government had not announced the findings.
Following the attack on a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy in Gaza, killing seven aid workers, including three Britons, in April, Kearns told BBC Radio 4 that the UK “has no choice but to suspend arms sales” to Israel.
“Legal advice is advisory so the government can choose to reject it, but UK arms export licences require a recipient to comply with international humanitarian law,” Kearns said.
However, the government at the time still did not suspend arms exports to Israel.
Since Lammy became foreign secretary following the July election, he has expressed reluctance to implement a full ban on weapons sales to Israel.
Following his visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank in July, Lammy told the House of Commons, during a motion calling for the immediate suspension of export licences for arms to Israel, that Israel was “surrounded by people who would see its annihilation”.
“For those reasons, it would not be right to have a blanket ban between our country and Israel; what is right is for me to consider in the normal way the issues in relation to offensive weapons in Gaza, following the quasi-judicial process that I have outlined.”
Lammy was also pressed by other MPs during the session on July 19 to publish the government’s assessment on any IHL breaches since the October 7 Hamas attack, which, despite his own earlier calls, the Labour government has not done.
What do campaigners and legal experts say?
Following the April attack on the WCK convoy, more than 1,000 lawyers and retired judges in the UK sent a letter to the government arguing that the sale of arms to Israel violates international law.
In the letter, the lawyers argued that the continued arms exports to Israel “give rise to concerns regarding the United Kingdom’s compliance with its obligation under The Arms Trade Treaty”.
CAAT, along with advocacy groups the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and War on Want, have also issued a joint statement saying that the delay in ceasing arms exports to Israel is “unconscionable”.
“The Arms Trade Treaty, to which Britain is a State Party, outlines that a State must not export arms if there is “potential” that they could be used to commit violations of international human rights or humanitarian law,” the groups said in their statement.
“It is inconceivable that after over 75 years of Israel’s regime of military occupation and apartheid, and nearly 10 months of Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza … that the government’s legal advice has adjudged that such a risk does not exist.”
Campaigners point to the International Court of Justice’s July advisory opinion that member states, which include the UK, must “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Katie Fallon, an Advocacy Manager at CAAT, told Al Jazeera that the case for an “immediate arms embargo has been overwhelming for months”.
“If Labour implements a meaningful suspension of arms exports to Israel, it would be a crucial step towards ending the impunity that Israel has been afforded by the international community to commit the most serious violations, including genocide and crimes against humanity, against Palestinians,” she said.
Fallon added that a suspension “must include components for F-35 jets that are dropping bombs on Gaza, including 2000-pound bombs”.
What changes have the new Labour government made regarding Gaza?
Two weeks after winning the UK general election, the new Labour government announced it was resuming funding to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
Lammy said the UK was committed to providing 21 million pounds ($27m) to the agency after it previously cut funding following Israeli accusations, without evidence, that some of the UNRWA’s staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack.
Shortly after announcing the resumption of funding, the government also said that it was dropping a dispute with the International Criminal Court about whether it has jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
