UK sent Israel thousands of military items despite export ban, study finds

UK companies have exported 1000’s of navy objects together with munitions to Israel regardless of the federal government suspending key arms export licences to the country in September, new evaluation of commerce information reveals.

The analysis additionally raises questions over whether or not the UK continued to promote F-35 components on to Israel in breach of an endeavor solely to promote them to the US producers Lockheed Martin as a method of guaranteeing the fighter jet’s international provide chain was not disrupted, one thing the federal government stated was important for nationwide safety and Nato.

The findings have led the previous Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell to name for a full investigation, including it was a resigning matter if the overseas secretary, David Lammy, was proven to have misled parliament in breach of the ministerial code when he advised MPs in September that a lot of what the UK sends to Israel was “defensive in nature”.

Associated: Incoherence over arms exports to Israel leaves UK on shaky middle ground

McDonnell stated “The federal government has shrouded its arms provides to Israel in secrecy. They need to lastly come clear in response to this extraordinarily regarding proof and halt all British arms exports to Israel to make sure no British-made weapons are utilized in Netanyahu’s new and terrifying plans to annex the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse the land.”

The analysis – performed collectively by the Palestinian Youth Motion, Progressive Worldwide and Employees for a Free Palestine – makes use of Israeli tax authority import information to attempt to uncover what the continuance of the 200 arms export licences has allowed Israel to import. It covers the primary seven months of the Labour ban to March.

In September, the Labour authorities suspended 29 arms export licences for offensive use in Gaza, leaving 200 arms licences in place. It additionally gave a carve-out for tools used within the F-35 programme, saying nationwide safety required that the F-35 provide chain remained intact.

The suspensions had been attributable to a transparent danger that Israel may use the arms to commit severe breaches of worldwide humanitarian regulation. Ministers have repeatedly assured MPs that the arms export licences remaining in place didn’t cowl items to be used by the Israeli navy within the battle with Hamas.

Lammy, as an illustration, advised parliament in September the persevering with licences coated objects similar to “goggles and helmets to be used by one of many UK’s closest allies”.

The International Workplace has not printed particulars of what the persevering with licences coated.

However the brand new analysis raises questions over whether or not that distinction between supplying tools for Israel’s offensive and defensive functions is, or ever was, legitimate, particularly if, because it seems, it supplied a loophole for gross sales of munitions to Israel. The UK has no technique of checking how the munitions it exports are utilized by the Israel Protection Forces.

This newest analysis signifies that 14 shipments of navy objects have been despatched from the UK to Israel since October 2023, together with 13 by air to Ben Gurion airport and one maritime supply to Haifa that alone contained 160,000 objects.

Since September 2024, 8,630 objects had been exported underneath the class “bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles and related munitions of battle and components thereof – different”.

Along with weapons, 4 shipments had been made after September of 146 objects underneath a customs code recognized as “tanks and different armoured combating autos, motorised, whether or not or not fitted with weapons, and components of such autos”.

A lot of the shipments, valued in whole at simply over £500,000, occurred after the UK authorities suspended the arms export licences in September.

The Israeli information gives a code quantity figuring out the kind of export, particulars on nation of origin, the worth of the objects, the month shipped and whether or not transported by land or sea. Neither the provider or buyer is listed.

On the dedication to not promote F-35 parts to Israel immediately, the report finds that the month-to-month sample of UK shipments of plane components to Israel is essentially unchanged since September, however the information doesn’t reveal if they’re navy components.

Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, stated: “This explosive report reveals the federal government has been mendacity to us in regards to the arms it’s supplying to Israel whereas it wages genocide in Gaza. Removed from ‘helmets and goggles’, the federal government has been sending 1000’s of arms and ammunition items.” Labour has withdrawn the occasion whip from Sultana as a result of she voted towards profit cuts.

A International Workplace spokesperson stated: “This authorities has suspended related licences for the IDF that could be used to commit or facilitate severe violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation in Gaza.

“Of the remaining licences for Israel, the overwhelming majority aren’t for the Israeli Defence Forces however are for civilian functions or re-export, and subsequently aren’t used within the battle in Gaza.

“The one exemption is the F-35 programme attributable to its strategic function in Nato and wider implications for worldwide peace and safety. Any suggestion that the UK is licensing different weapons to be used by Israel within the battle in Gaza is deceptive.

“The UK completely opposes an enlargement of Israel’s navy operations in Gaza. We urge all events to return urgently to talks, implement the ceasefire settlement in full, safe the discharge of hostages taken by Hamas, and work in the direction of a everlasting peace.”

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