The UK announced Monday that it has suspended some arms export licenses to Israel over concerns the weapons are being used to violate international law in Gaza.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the decision, which suspends 30 out of 355 export licenses for Israel and covers components for military aircraft, including fighter jets, drones, and helicopters.
The export bans do not apply to components for the F-35 fighter jets, which the UK exports as part of a multinational program, unless it is known that the components will be shipped directly to Israel.
Activists who have pressured the British government to suspend arms exports to Israel criticized the exemption for F-35s, which are a critical part of the Israeli Air Force.
“The suspension of export licenses took far long and didn’t go far enough,” said Yasmine Ahmed, director of Human Rights Watch in the UK, according to Middle East Eye. “That the UK government chose to exempt components for the F-35, a workhorse of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign, shows either a miscomprehension of the law or a wilful disregard.”
Lammy said a British government review concluded that there is a “clear risk” that British weapons might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law. He also claimed that it hasn’t been verified that Israel has violated international law despite the mountain of evidence of Israeli war crimes that has emerged over nearly 11 months of the genocidal slaughter in Gaza.
The US has similar foreign assistance laws that prohibit military aid to countries that will use it to violate US or international law. After a review, the State Department concluded that Israel was likely breaking the law but claimed there wasn’t evidence, allowing the military shipments to continue to flow.
