End the arms trade with Israel!
In July 2006, as Israel launched a horrendous attack on Southern Lebanon, various organisations and individual campaigners came together to launch Stop Arming Israel. The bombing and invasion of Gaza in the winter of 2008/9 has again highlighted the UK's complicity in arming Israel, both directly and through components in US-supplied weaponry.
Government admits equipment used in Gaza contained UK-supplied components
In a Ministerial Statement on 21st April 2009, Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary David Miliband admitted that Israeli equipment used in Gaza "almost certainly" contained UK-supplied components. He cited F16 combat aircraft, Apache attack helicopters, Saar-Class corvettes and armoured personnel carriers. The following day, quizzed by the Commons' Committees on Arms Export Controls, Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said no licences for such components had been approved since the war on the Lebanon in 2006.
That licences for key equipment being used by Israel are no longer being approved does not lessen the urgent need for a total embargo on all military equipment sales destined for Israel, including components. Such an embargo would send a strong message of disapproval of Israel's actions. It would also facilitate informed debate within as the UK and parliamentarians and the public would know what the situation is.
Briefing
"The Apache is not just equipment. For Palestinians it’s a symbol of indiscriminate military violence. From a young age, every Palestinian child learns to distinguish the Apache’s sound and associate it with assassinations, destruction and blood in the street." - Shawan Jabarin, director of the Palestinian human rights group al-Haq
A two-page summary of the case for an arms embargo is available. Download our briefing (pdf, 4.12mb) or order printed copies from us using the contact details at the bottom of the page. Perfect for campaign stalls and information tables.
Campaign Postcards
A double campaign postcard is available from Stop Arming Israel. One card is for people to send to their MP, the other is either for them to keep as a reference or to send back to us for more information.
More information
Has your MP signed?
Early Day Motion 400, a kind of parliamentary petition, on British Arms Sales to Israel has been tabled by a cross-party group of MPs. You can see it here. If your MP has not yet signed, please ask him or her to do so. Most MPs' email addresses can be found here or you can write to her or him at the House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.
