25 june 2019
British government continued to sign off on licences for weapons despite concerns raised by prime minister and MPs
The British government licensed arms deals worth over £14m ($17.8m) to Israel last year even as Israeli soldiers were accused of intentionally firing on Palestinian protesters at the Gaza border in what the UN says may be potential war crimes.
Weapons approved for sale included ammunition, components for assault rifles, and other types of arms which could be used for repression, according to newly released details from the Department of International Trade (DIT), compiled by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).
Revelations of the sales to Israel come after a UK court ordered the British government last week to stop approving arms sales to Saudi Arabia because it failed to fully assess whether the equipment might be used in breach of international humanitarian law in the war in Yemen.
One sale for more than $125,000-worth of military training equipment was approved on 18 May last year, four days after 68 Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops on the most deadly day in Gaza since the 2014 Israeli offensive.
The DIT declined to give MEE more details about the equipment and how it could be used.
The sale was approved the same week Prime Minister Theresa May called the Palestinian killings "extremely concerning," and said there was an urgent need to find out why Israeli forces had used live fire.
The British government licensed arms deals worth over £14m ($17.8m) to Israel last year even as Israeli soldiers were accused of intentionally firing on Palestinian protesters at the Gaza border in what the UN says may be potential war crimes.
Weapons approved for sale included ammunition, components for assault rifles, and other types of arms which could be used for repression, according to newly released details from the Department of International Trade (DIT), compiled by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).
Revelations of the sales to Israel come after a UK court ordered the British government last week to stop approving arms sales to Saudi Arabia because it failed to fully assess whether the equipment might be used in breach of international humanitarian law in the war in Yemen.
One sale for more than $125,000-worth of military training equipment was approved on 18 May last year, four days after 68 Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops on the most deadly day in Gaza since the 2014 Israeli offensive.
The DIT declined to give MEE more details about the equipment and how it could be used.
The sale was approved the same week Prime Minister Theresa May called the Palestinian killings "extremely concerning," and said there was an urgent need to find out why Israeli forces had used live fire.
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"While we do not question the right of Israel to defend its borders, the use of live fire and the resulting loss of life is deeply troubling," May said in a 15 May press conference. "We urge Israel to show restraint."
The violence at the border was debated in parliament on the same day, with seven MPs calling for greater scrutiny of arms sales to Israel and some calling for an outright ban. But the approval of licences continued, including military radar equipment, missile technology and night-vision gear, totalling about $18m between 30 March until the end of the year. That figure does not include sales that were approved through what are |
called open licences, whereby UK firms are not required to publicly disclose the values of arms or quantities sold.
Use of these opaque licences to sell arms to states in the Middle East and North Africa rose by 22 percent between 2013 and 2017, MEE has reported.
MEE understands that the DIT reviewed export licenses for Israel following the events at the border in May 2018 but found nothing to indicate that UK-supplied equipment had been used in a way that violated licensing criteria.
It would, however, revoke licences if that assessment changed.
A DIT spokesperson told MEE: "All export licence applications are considered on a case-by-case basis against international criteria, including respect for human rights. We will revoke any licences found to be no longer consistent with these standards.
"We keep all defence exports under careful and continual review."
'The message it sends'But CAAT spokesperson Andrew Smith said that while it's not clear whether UK-made weapons were specifically used on protesters, it is the symbolism of the UK sales, which have continued through Israeli offensives on Gaza in 2008 and 2014, that matters.
"If shooting on the border didn't stop the arms sales, if the bombardment in 2014 and 2008 didn't stop them, what more will it take?" Smith said.
"The message it sends is that, no matter what atrocities are inflicted on the Palestinian people, arms sales will continue."
By continuing to arm and support the Israeli military, he added, the UK is "only making it more likely that UK-made weapons will play a devastating role in the future".
Asked about the figures, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot told MEE it is the sole responsibility of the British government to ensure that its arms sales are lawful, but he said there was a wider legal context to consider beyond the arms trade.
"The UK government can only say if it has done its due process. We are not aware of such a process to ensure that these weapons do not harm innocent Palestinians and they do not end up aiding Israel in its illegal occupation and colonisation of the land and people of Palestine," he said.
"It's not just about a direct specific incident only, but it's also about the overall macro picture of the entire illegal situation of a state that has been in control of another and in daily violations of basic UK and international law."
Shortly before the mass killing on 18 May, the UK parliament's Committee on Arms Export Controls, the government's arms export watchdog, wrote to Trade Secretary Liam Fox [pdf], asking whether he had any information about how sniper rifles and their components approved for sale to Israel in January 2017 had been used.
Fox responded that the company which exported the rifles and components used them to test ammunition in the company's own firing range.
"We were satisfied that there was not a clear risk that these items might be used for internal repression or in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law," he wrote.
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, an MP and member of the committee, said the answer had been "rather dissatisfactory" and called for end-use auditing that was more far-sighted.
"There is no good sending Israel arms in relative peace assuming the risk of it using them is low only to realise it is too late when it launches another disproportionate assault on their neighbours," he said.
According to Palestinian Ministry of Health figures released on Sunday, 306 people have been killed and 35,529 injured in what have been called the Great March of Return protests.
The ongoing initiative began in March 2018 after a call from local civil society actors urged Palestinians to engage in a mass march towards the Gaza fence in opposition to Israel's 11-year-old siege on Gaza.
A United Nations inquiry released earlier this year found that Israeli soldiers intentionally shot civilians and may have committed war crimes in their heavy-handed response to the protests.
Use of these opaque licences to sell arms to states in the Middle East and North Africa rose by 22 percent between 2013 and 2017, MEE has reported.
MEE understands that the DIT reviewed export licenses for Israel following the events at the border in May 2018 but found nothing to indicate that UK-supplied equipment had been used in a way that violated licensing criteria.
It would, however, revoke licences if that assessment changed.
A DIT spokesperson told MEE: "All export licence applications are considered on a case-by-case basis against international criteria, including respect for human rights. We will revoke any licences found to be no longer consistent with these standards.
"We keep all defence exports under careful and continual review."
'The message it sends'But CAAT spokesperson Andrew Smith said that while it's not clear whether UK-made weapons were specifically used on protesters, it is the symbolism of the UK sales, which have continued through Israeli offensives on Gaza in 2008 and 2014, that matters.
"If shooting on the border didn't stop the arms sales, if the bombardment in 2014 and 2008 didn't stop them, what more will it take?" Smith said.
"The message it sends is that, no matter what atrocities are inflicted on the Palestinian people, arms sales will continue."
By continuing to arm and support the Israeli military, he added, the UK is "only making it more likely that UK-made weapons will play a devastating role in the future".
Asked about the figures, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot told MEE it is the sole responsibility of the British government to ensure that its arms sales are lawful, but he said there was a wider legal context to consider beyond the arms trade.
"The UK government can only say if it has done its due process. We are not aware of such a process to ensure that these weapons do not harm innocent Palestinians and they do not end up aiding Israel in its illegal occupation and colonisation of the land and people of Palestine," he said.
"It's not just about a direct specific incident only, but it's also about the overall macro picture of the entire illegal situation of a state that has been in control of another and in daily violations of basic UK and international law."
Shortly before the mass killing on 18 May, the UK parliament's Committee on Arms Export Controls, the government's arms export watchdog, wrote to Trade Secretary Liam Fox [pdf], asking whether he had any information about how sniper rifles and their components approved for sale to Israel in January 2017 had been used.
Fox responded that the company which exported the rifles and components used them to test ammunition in the company's own firing range.
"We were satisfied that there was not a clear risk that these items might be used for internal repression or in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law," he wrote.
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, an MP and member of the committee, said the answer had been "rather dissatisfactory" and called for end-use auditing that was more far-sighted.
"There is no good sending Israel arms in relative peace assuming the risk of it using them is low only to realise it is too late when it launches another disproportionate assault on their neighbours," he said.
According to Palestinian Ministry of Health figures released on Sunday, 306 people have been killed and 35,529 injured in what have been called the Great March of Return protests.
The ongoing initiative began in March 2018 after a call from local civil society actors urged Palestinians to engage in a mass march towards the Gaza fence in opposition to Israel's 11-year-old siege on Gaza.
A United Nations inquiry released earlier this year found that Israeli soldiers intentionally shot civilians and may have committed war crimes in their heavy-handed response to the protests.
22 june 2019
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The views of Katie Hopkins represent a particularly British form of fascism.
Similar in some ways to US President Donald Trump, she rose to national fame through reality TV. Both appeared on the same franchise, The Apprentice – a particularly crass example of the genre. Hopkins appeared as a contestant in the UK version of the show. She is naturally a supporter of President Trump and of his racism; Trump, for his part, has returned the compliment. With his usual disregard for the truth, he has claimed she is a “respected columnist”. Her time spewing violently anti-Muslim garbage for the Sun and the Mail Online mercifully lasted only a few short years. It’s an indicator of just how extreme she is that even two of Britain’s most racist publications found her too much. Her Sun contract ended in 2015 after public disgust at a particularly bad column, in which she attacked the (often Muslim) refugees and migrants fleeing across the Mediterranean Sea into Europe, labelling them “cockroaches”. Her openly genocidal language continued with a tweet in which she called for a “final solution” for Muslims – an invocation of the Nazi Holocaust against Jews. This thankfully led to the end of her LBC radio show. None of this is legitimate free speech – it is open incitement to violence and even to genocide. |
Yet as with so many of the modern fascist far-right, Katie Hopkins is a big fan of Israel.
Earlier this month, Hopkins appeared on an Israeli TV channel openly calling for the expulsion of the almost seven million Palestinians who now live in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
The i24 News channel shamefully gave this fascist a platform to call for Israel to “remove the people who don’t belong here” – the indigenous people of Palestine. This must be understood as a call for ethnic cleansing, though it more likely constitutes incitement to genocide.
Like other fascists, Hopkins has also propagated anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, tweeting that “Soros NGOs” are to blame for critical media coverage of Israel. This was a reference to Jewish billionaire George Soros, who has donated billions to his foundations supporting liberal and anti-communist causes.
As I explained in a feature for the Electronic Intifada in March, Soros has become a demonised figure for the fascist right around the world, so it is to be expected that Hopkins would jump on the bandwagon.
While there are no doubt valid criticisms of Soros (or, indeed, any billionaire – no one should be allowed to have that much money to themselves, in my view) the far-right’s attacks on Soros do not fall into this category. The attacks are more often than not openly anti-Jewish.
A government campaign against Soros in Hungary – his country of birth – was openly anti-Semitic, while right-wing attacks demonise him as a global “puppet master”, a typical Nazi stereotype of the fictional Jewish conspiracy to control the world.
All of which puts the lie to fascists like Hopkins and their claims to be concerned about anti-Semitism. Hopkins only raises the word to attack Muslims and the Labour Party on spurious grounds.
Her behaviour continues the trend of the global far-right today embracing Zionism. On one level, there’s little doubt that the attraction is sometimes a shallow one – towards Israel’s long record of mass-murder targeting a majority-Muslim population.
Yet it goes deeper than that. Israel is viewed by these racists as “a villa in the jungle”, to quote former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak – it is seen as the frontier of “Western civilization” against the barbarous Muslim hordes.
The fact that Barak was the leader of the Israeli Labor Party only goes to show how little supposedly left-wing Zionism differs from the right-wing Zionism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
While tactics and strategies differ, at the end of the day both are simply different wings of the same movement, with the same end goal – the establishment and preservation of a European Jewish settler-colonial movement in the majority non-Jewish country of Palestine, against the wishes of the indigenous people.
Fascists have always admired such racist movements, so much so that even such an openly neo-Nazi figure as Richard Spencer can call himself a “White Zionist”. Katie Hopkins, then, was in a way correct when she stated on Israeli TV that Israel is her “natural home”.
Earlier this month, Hopkins appeared on an Israeli TV channel openly calling for the expulsion of the almost seven million Palestinians who now live in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
The i24 News channel shamefully gave this fascist a platform to call for Israel to “remove the people who don’t belong here” – the indigenous people of Palestine. This must be understood as a call for ethnic cleansing, though it more likely constitutes incitement to genocide.
Like other fascists, Hopkins has also propagated anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, tweeting that “Soros NGOs” are to blame for critical media coverage of Israel. This was a reference to Jewish billionaire George Soros, who has donated billions to his foundations supporting liberal and anti-communist causes.
As I explained in a feature for the Electronic Intifada in March, Soros has become a demonised figure for the fascist right around the world, so it is to be expected that Hopkins would jump on the bandwagon.
While there are no doubt valid criticisms of Soros (or, indeed, any billionaire – no one should be allowed to have that much money to themselves, in my view) the far-right’s attacks on Soros do not fall into this category. The attacks are more often than not openly anti-Jewish.
A government campaign against Soros in Hungary – his country of birth – was openly anti-Semitic, while right-wing attacks demonise him as a global “puppet master”, a typical Nazi stereotype of the fictional Jewish conspiracy to control the world.
All of which puts the lie to fascists like Hopkins and their claims to be concerned about anti-Semitism. Hopkins only raises the word to attack Muslims and the Labour Party on spurious grounds.
Her behaviour continues the trend of the global far-right today embracing Zionism. On one level, there’s little doubt that the attraction is sometimes a shallow one – towards Israel’s long record of mass-murder targeting a majority-Muslim population.
Yet it goes deeper than that. Israel is viewed by these racists as “a villa in the jungle”, to quote former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak – it is seen as the frontier of “Western civilization” against the barbarous Muslim hordes.
The fact that Barak was the leader of the Israeli Labor Party only goes to show how little supposedly left-wing Zionism differs from the right-wing Zionism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
While tactics and strategies differ, at the end of the day both are simply different wings of the same movement, with the same end goal – the establishment and preservation of a European Jewish settler-colonial movement in the majority non-Jewish country of Palestine, against the wishes of the indigenous people.
Fascists have always admired such racist movements, so much so that even such an openly neo-Nazi figure as Richard Spencer can call himself a “White Zionist”. Katie Hopkins, then, was in a way correct when she stated on Israeli TV that Israel is her “natural home”.
16 june 2019
This year, London will once again host the world’s biggest exhibition on Palestine, bringing together culture, history, entertainment and exhibitions.
Organized by the British NGO Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA), Palestine Expo aims to bring awareness to the Palestinian cause during the two-day event which is being held in the iconic Olympia Exhibition Center.
Fifty renowned speakers, authors, scholars, campaigners and political figures are expected to take part in the event on 6-7 July along with chefs, artists, comedians and spoken work performers.
Palestinian Members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) Ahmad Tibi and Yousef Jabareen are among those due to attend, along with author and Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe, Palestinian activist Issa Amro, UK MP Andy Slaughter, former director general of Al Jazeera Media Network Wadah Khanfar, journalist at Israel’s Haaretz newspaper Gideon Levy, Professor Josef Massad and British star of “Eastenders” John Altman.
Visitors will hear stories from Palestinians who are travelling to London especially to attend this world class event. Stalls and a shopping district are also being setup offering a range of Palestinian merchandise, art, fashion and beauty products, and the best of freshly made Palestinian food including falafel and knafeh.
Organized by the British NGO Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA), Palestine Expo aims to bring awareness to the Palestinian cause during the two-day event which is being held in the iconic Olympia Exhibition Center.
Fifty renowned speakers, authors, scholars, campaigners and political figures are expected to take part in the event on 6-7 July along with chefs, artists, comedians and spoken work performers.
Palestinian Members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) Ahmad Tibi and Yousef Jabareen are among those due to attend, along with author and Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe, Palestinian activist Issa Amro, UK MP Andy Slaughter, former director general of Al Jazeera Media Network Wadah Khanfar, journalist at Israel’s Haaretz newspaper Gideon Levy, Professor Josef Massad and British star of “Eastenders” John Altman.
Visitors will hear stories from Palestinians who are travelling to London especially to attend this world class event. Stalls and a shopping district are also being setup offering a range of Palestinian merchandise, art, fashion and beauty products, and the best of freshly made Palestinian food including falafel and knafeh.
29 may 2019
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has called on Britain to implement its parliament's recognition of the Palestinian state on the ground.
British move “will be so important in light of Israel's intention to annex parts of the West Bank,” Shtayyeh said in a statement on Tuesday after meeting with a British parliamentary delegation in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
He also urged Britain to send a technical team to Palestine to investigate the Israeli deduction of Palestinian tax revenue dues.
Back in October 2014, the British Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the government recognizing Palestine as a state.
The ayes had it when 274 MPs voted to adopt the non-binding motion and only 12 voted against it.
The original motion stipulated that “this House believes that the government should recognize the state of Palestine alongside … Israel.”
Then Labour Party legislator Grahame Morris said recognizing a Palestinian state could help break the impasse in peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Tel Aviv regime before it was too late.
Conservative lawmaker Nicholas Soames also said that “to recognize Palestine is both morally right and is in our national interest.”
Britain does not designate Palestine as a state, but asserts it could do so at any time if it believed it would help the long-stalled talks peace process between the Palestinians and Israel.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has called on Britain to implement its parliament's recognition of the Palestinian state on the ground.
British move “will be so important in light of Israel's intention to annex parts of the West Bank,” Shtayyeh said in a statement on Tuesday after meeting with a British parliamentary delegation in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
He also urged Britain to send a technical team to Palestine to investigate the Israeli deduction of Palestinian tax revenue dues.
Back in October 2014, the British Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the government recognizing Palestine as a state.
The ayes had it when 274 MPs voted to adopt the non-binding motion and only 12 voted against it.
The original motion stipulated that “this House believes that the government should recognize the state of Palestine alongside … Israel.”
Then Labour Party legislator Grahame Morris said recognizing a Palestinian state could help break the impasse in peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Tel Aviv regime before it was too late.
Conservative lawmaker Nicholas Soames also said that “to recognize Palestine is both morally right and is in our national interest.”
Britain does not designate Palestine as a state, but asserts it could do so at any time if it believed it would help the long-stalled talks peace process between the Palestinians and Israel.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
9 may 2019
On the 71st anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the Palestinian Forum of Britain calls on all Palestinians - within Palestine and in the diaspora, the Arab and Muslim nations and all those who believe in the sanctity of Freedom around the world, to stand in unity and solidarity against the present attempt to annihilate our cause.
For over a century, the Palestinian people have successfully confronted dozens of plots and campaigns to kill the Palestinian cause, and will succeed too in defeating this latest one.
71 years on from the Palestinian Nakba, it has become public knowledge that the US administration has finalized the details to end the Palestinian cause, in what is known as the ‘Deal of the Century’ which, according to numerous official US sources, will be announced after the month of Ramadan. Regardless of whether the plan will be announced in its final version, or whether it will represent a phase within a gradual plan, this constitutes a great threat to the Palestinian cause unless the world’s free people agree on a stand to confront and defeat it.
From the excerpts that have been leaked along with previous decisions related to Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, it is clear that the Palestinian people are being told to accept the legitimacy of Zionist occupation over all of Palestine, in what resembles a mere commercial transaction from which Palestinians get the right to live in exchange for relinquishing their rights, their lands and their holy sites.
Therefore, the Palestinian Forum of Britain calls on the all those who support the right of every Palestinian to return to their homes, who reject Trump’s plans and policies, and who empathized with the Palestinian babies killed by the latest Israeli missiles including Saba Abu Arrar, along with scores of innocent civilians, to attend the demonstration held in commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba. This demonstration which will be held on Saturday 11th of May will sound out an unequivocal condemnation of Trump’s policies and a resounding support for rights of the Palestinian people, regardless of the 71 years of a horrific Israeli occupation.
The PFB also renews its calls on the British government to issue an apology to the Palestinian people for its historic crime which manifested in the infamous Balfour Declaration, and to support its efforts to see Palestinians attain their freedom and right to return to their rightful homes and lands.
PFB prays for those who paid with their lives defending Palestine over a hundred years, salutes the countless detainees who spent their youth and best years locked up inside Israeli prison cells and declares its solidarity with all those who resist attempts and confront plots to eliminate the Palestinian cause.
For over a century, the Palestinian people have successfully confronted dozens of plots and campaigns to kill the Palestinian cause, and will succeed too in defeating this latest one.
71 years on from the Palestinian Nakba, it has become public knowledge that the US administration has finalized the details to end the Palestinian cause, in what is known as the ‘Deal of the Century’ which, according to numerous official US sources, will be announced after the month of Ramadan. Regardless of whether the plan will be announced in its final version, or whether it will represent a phase within a gradual plan, this constitutes a great threat to the Palestinian cause unless the world’s free people agree on a stand to confront and defeat it.
From the excerpts that have been leaked along with previous decisions related to Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, it is clear that the Palestinian people are being told to accept the legitimacy of Zionist occupation over all of Palestine, in what resembles a mere commercial transaction from which Palestinians get the right to live in exchange for relinquishing their rights, their lands and their holy sites.
Therefore, the Palestinian Forum of Britain calls on the all those who support the right of every Palestinian to return to their homes, who reject Trump’s plans and policies, and who empathized with the Palestinian babies killed by the latest Israeli missiles including Saba Abu Arrar, along with scores of innocent civilians, to attend the demonstration held in commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba. This demonstration which will be held on Saturday 11th of May will sound out an unequivocal condemnation of Trump’s policies and a resounding support for rights of the Palestinian people, regardless of the 71 years of a horrific Israeli occupation.
The PFB also renews its calls on the British government to issue an apology to the Palestinian people for its historic crime which manifested in the infamous Balfour Declaration, and to support its efforts to see Palestinians attain their freedom and right to return to their rightful homes and lands.
PFB prays for those who paid with their lives defending Palestine over a hundred years, salutes the countless detainees who spent their youth and best years locked up inside Israeli prison cells and declares its solidarity with all those who resist attempts and confront plots to eliminate the Palestinian cause.
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