The UK government has stated that its advice on arms sales to Israel has not changed, despite increased calls to reassess the UK’s support following the fatal targeting of aid workers in Gaza this week. In response to criticism of Israel’s actions, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden, said Israel was conducting a “legitimate” war of self-defence. Dowden indicated that the UK would end arms supplies to Israel if found to be in breach of international law, but said the “key thing” is that UK arms sales to Israel are lawful. While the Labour party is calling for the UK’s Foreign Secretary, Lord David Cameron, to answer questions about the legal advice he has received on subsequent arms sales, Dowden dismissed calls as “holding Israel to standards we wouldn’t remotely hold other countries to”.
Conservative Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Alicia Kearns, has claimed that the UK government has received advice confirming that Israel breached international humanitarian law in its actions. While Dowden did not directly deny the allegation, the deputy PM did state that the UK has “specific concerns” about access for aid workers and civilian deaths, which Israel has engaged with. Recent reports suggest that since Israel launched its Operation Protective Edge campaign in 2014, 33,137 people in Gaza have been killed, with more than 75,815 left injured, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry.
Lord Mark Sedwill, former UK top civil servant, has raised ethical and legal concerns surrounding existing arms sales to Israel from the UK. He pointed out that there is a separate question from whether arms sales are lawful surrounding whether they are ethically right and can be used to influence Israel’s handling of its military campaigns. Lord Sedwill suggested that Cameron’s statement regarding “support being not unconditional” hinted that leverage over the way Israel conducts its campaigns was being considered.
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has written to the UK government calling on Lord David Cameron to attend the House of Commons so that MPs can question him about his legal advice on UK arms exports to Israel. Lammy remains skeptical that the UK has not breached its obligations according to international humanitarian law in relation to its arms sales to Israel
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