https://www.declassifieduk.org/will-uk-ministers-now-be-held-liable-for-war-crimes/
Britain’s new government admits Israel could use UK weapons for war crimes in Gaza. So will their Conservative predecessors be investigated for complicity?
This week, the UK government finally decided to suspend some arms export licences to Israel, almost 11 months after the fighting began.
Speaking in parliament, foreign secretary David Lammy announced that “around 30 from a total of approximately 350” arms export licences to Israel had been frozen due to a “clear risk that they might be used to commit” war crimes.
The restrictions include equipment that could be used “in the current conflict in Gaza, such as important components which go into military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones, as well as items which facilitate ground targeting”.
By contrast, the previous Conservative government did not cancel any licences for military goods to be sent to Israel between 7 October and the general election.
The latest restrictions consequently indicate that former ministers including Rishi Sunak and David Cameron, as well as Conservative leadership contenders James Cleverly and Kemi Badenoch, were complicit in Israel’s atrocities.
In particular, there is mounting evidence that Lammy’s predecessor, Lord Cameron, “sat on advice” he received that Israel was breaching international humanitarian law (IHL) in Gaza.
‘So obvious’
In January, the Conservative government had 28 extant “high-risk” licences with Israel marked as “most likely to be used by the IDF in offensive operations in Gaza” – a strikingly similar number to that which Lammy has suspended.
And back in March a senior Conservative MP, Alicia Kearns, was secretly recorded telling a Tory fundraiser that the Foreign Office’s legal advice “would mean the UK has to cease all arms sales to Israel without delay”.
A Foreign Office source has now come forward to expose how Cameron was in receipt of “similar” legal advice to that currently being used by Lammy “from at least February onwards”.
“The advice being sent through to the Foreign Office was clear that the breaches of IHL by Israel as the occupying power were so obvious that there was a danger of UK complicity if the licences were not withdrawn”, the source told the Guardian.
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https://www.declassifieduk.org/will-uk-ministers-now-be-held-liable-for-war-crimes/
