The British government has taken the initiative to review its sale of £8 billion in arms and military goods to Israel, in order to assess whether each licence is appropriate in the context of the conflict in Gaza, reports The Guardian.
Downing Street considers that the conflict has started « because of Hamas », which has been proved definitively wrong (see for instance our articles on these issues : http://www.eiilir.eu/politics-strategies/middle-east/israel-palestine/129-israel-s-war-on-terror-is-a-war-for-natural-gas and http://www.eiilir.eu/politics-strategies/topics/actual-topics/128-israel-s-dahiya-doctrine-terror-tactics-to-ensure-colonial-domination-in-gaza). It says Israel has « a legitimate right to self-defence ». Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition, of Jewish origin, has outspokenly opposed Israel’s attack on Gaza.
But David Cameron has made strong comments on the crisis, saying that the UN was right to condemn the shelling of schools as a « moral outrage », and the British government said is « is currently reviewing all export licences to Israel to confirm that we think they are appropriate ». « All applications for export licences are assessed on a case by case basis against strict criteria. We will not issue a licence if there is a clear risk that the equipment might be used for internal repression, or if there is a clear risk that it would provoke or prolong conflict », said a spokesman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.
The contracts are mainly for cryptographic software and military communications, but they also include weapon parts, including one for a company selling components for Israel’s Merkava main battle tank. Nevertheless, the government also said it had no plans to investigate whether British-made parts were being used in weapons or military equipment deployed in Gaza.
After Operation Cast Lead in 2008 – 2009, the British government acknowledged British-made components were almost certainly involved in equipment used by the Israeli Defence Force during the assault.
This initiative will have a limited impact on Israel’s ability to wage war on Gaza, and does not tackle the conflict at its root (widespread poverty in Gaza, hawkism in Israel), but still, it should immediately be imitated by all of the other major arms exporters. This measure could demonstrate how international support to Israel is decreasing. It is actually possible to implement such an initiative very swiftly.
Beyond that, the fact that a Conservative government is the first among Western countries to take such a decision demonstrates that it may be possible to think of a similar initiative even in the United States of America. At a time when we are celebrating the 100 years of the First World War, a global initiative for peace between Israel and Palestine would be an extraordinary proof that the international community has matured.
