LONDON: Palestine’s ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot today discussed with a UK Minister the imposition of a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel.
Ambassador Zomlot had a meeting with UK Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer, during which he expressed the need to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, particularly following local and international human rights organizations’ reports indicating that Israel has been using UK arms in human rights violations in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and given the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, which found that Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories was “unlawful”.
He added that the imposition of such an embargo is a part of the UK’s obligations under international humanitarian law, and called on the UK government to recognize the State of Palestine and impose sanctions, not only on the illegal Israeli system of settler-colonialism, which encompasses Israeli colonies, colonists and colonies pr
oducts, but also on the state that sponsors settler-colonialism, namely Israel.
The UK diplomat, Falconer, affirmed that the UK government has reached an evaluation that leaves no option but to acknowledge the clear risk arising from the fact that ‘some’ of the UK arms exports to Israel are used in committing of facilitating grave violations of international humanitarian law.
The meeting came just three days after the UK suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel following a review under the new Labour government which found that British-made weapons may have been used in the violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza.
According to the Middle East Eye, Arms campaigners and rights advocates who have pressed for a full suspension of arms sales to Israel for months welcomed the decision, but criticised the continued export of F-35 fighter jet components which one called “a workhorse of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign”.
The suspension, announced by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in parliament on Mon
day, covers components for other types of military aircraft, including fighter planes, helicopters and drones. Around 320 other licences, including for items for civilian use, remain in place.
The announcement cames hours before two organisations which have challenged the UK government in the High Court over the continued exports were set to pursue fresh legal action in an attempt to force the exports to stop immediately.
Lawyers with the UK-based Global Legan Action Network (Glan) and the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq said they told the government last week of their intent to request an emergency order and had planned to do this at a Tuesday morning hearing.
But late on Monday, the organisations said they would now consider whether the announced ban was “extensive enough to meet the gravity of the situation and assess whether further litigation remains necessary”.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA