Press Release: Petition to stop arms sales to Israel delivered to Downing Street

Petition calling for an immediate suspension of UK arms sales to Israel handed in at 10 Downing Street

• Nearly 70 000 have signed the petition organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)
• There is growing, cross-party, pressure in Parliament to suspend arms sales that are likely to be in breach of international law
• Protest against arms sales to Israel will take place outside Parliament tomorrow evening (6pm, Wednesday 17 April)

A petition calling on the UK government to halt arms exports to Israel has been handed in at 10 Downing Street by PSC and a cross party group of MPs. Nearly 70 000 people have signed so far.

The government’s own arms export guidelines state it “will not grant a licence if it determines there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”. Alicia Kearns MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, was recorded at an event saying: “The Foreign Office has received official legal advice that Israel has broken international humanitarian law, but the government has not announced it.”

Yesterday in the Commons, Zarah Sultana MP asked the Prime Minister, “Was the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee telling the truth – yes or no?” Rishi Sunak refused to deny the Foreign Office has received such legal advice, saying only that “Israel is committed and capable of complying with international humanitarian law.”

More than 1000 lawyers, academics and retired judges, including the former President of the Supreme Court Baroness Hale, have signed an open letter saying that the continued supply of arms to Israel puts the UK in breach of international law. Two weeks ago a cross party group of 135 Parliamentarians wrote to the Foreign Secretary and Business Secretary, saying the case for a suspension of arms export licenses to Israel is “overwhelming.”

Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain and Belgium have all announced they would stop shipping weapons to Israel. Despite this, Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said the UK will continue arms sales.

More than 34 000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in six months, most of the civil infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed and the UN has issued stark warnings that famine is imminent for the population of 2 million people. It is in this context that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded there was plausible evidence that Israel is conducting a genocide.

Ben Jamal, PSC Director, said :

“Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians, and its attacks on Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, prove that arming it not only makes the UK complicit in violating international law but also the sparking of a regional war with catastrophic consequences. Continuing to arm Israel cannot help the cause of peace or justice in the Middle East. Any Government truly committed to upholding international law does not sell weapons to a state that continually breaches it.”