Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden announced that if Israel violates international law in Gaza, Britain will break up arms licenses worth more than $725 million to Israel since 2008 and will not sell its weapons. The announcement comes as UK ministers are under pressure to disclose the legal advice they gave about ongoing military sales to Israel.
When pressed, “If the Government would stop arms sales if it received legal advice that Israel was in breach of international humanitarian law,” on Sunday’s edition of the BBC, Dowden responded to Laura Kuenssberg by saying, “Of course we won’t supply those arms if it is the case that we can’t lawfully, by the Act do so, but that is precisely the position, for example, even in respect of the United States or any other country around the globe.”
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He said, “And it contrasts so strongly, our adherence to very high values, with the horrific atrocities that terrorist organizations have committed against Israel.”
Regarding the issue of arms sales to Israel, there has been disagreement within the UK cabinet. “Of course, our backing is not unconditional: we expect such a proud and successful democracy to abide by international humanitarian law, even when challenged in this way,” British Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron wrote in the Sunday Times. Israel owes the Gaza population a duty as the occupying force.
This follows the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) April 1 deaths of three British humanitarian workers: John Chapman, 57; James “Jim” Henderson, 33; and James Kirby, 47.
Six months have passed since Hamas militants assaulted southern Israel on October 7, leaving around 1,200 people dead. This Sunday, April 7, is the anniversary of that massacre.
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