Is Israel About to LOSE UK Arms Support?!

Right, so no matter what the viewpoint of Keir Starmer or David Lammy or anyone else in this most rancid of right wing governments laughably referring to itself as the Labour Party might be of what Israel has been doing in Gaza or the rest of the Middle East, regardless of their legal opinions, it seems those opinions might not be shared by a couple of organisations who, quietly, behind the scenes and I say behind the scenes as in the mainstream media haven’t bothered to cover it, have built their case against UK arms exports to Israel, far from complete as we well know, Starmer & Co having only suspended some 30 export licences of 350 to Israel including the well known example of the continued transferral of F-35 jet parts to the blue and white state.
Well this week an ultimatum had been issued to Starmer’s government. They had until 4pm Friday the 15th November to cease all arms exports to Israel. Funnily enough, they didn’t, so now a day in court over this looms instead.
Right, so Starmer’s government in the dock over arms export licences, it could now be happening as they’ve failed to meet the deadline of the legal ultimatum they had levied against them, to stop all arms exports to Israel.
The issue facing the UK in this case particularly though, the focal point right now is the ongoing supply of those F-35 jet parts when F-35 jets are being supplied to Israel. Even though we only make certain parts of these jets in the UK, the UK contribute about 15% of the entire jet, the government excuse is that these parts go to third parties and not Israel directly, for further assembly. This is now the subject of this legal challenge in the High Court.
The challenge has been brought jointly by the Global Legal Action Network or GLAN and a Palestinian human rights organisation called Al-Haq and they have informed the UK government, ministers and arms sales execs that they could be indicted for aiding and abetting war crimes if they continue to transfer jet components which then get used by Israel to genocidal effect. Here’s an excerpt from Middle East Eye’s coverage on this story:
‘Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq's general director, said Israel has been carrying out "genocidal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza" for nearly a year.
"We know that Israeli air strikes and bombs using F-35 fighter jets have devastated densely populated areas, including shelters for displaced Palestinians," Jabarin said.
"The insurmountable evidence that Israel is committing violations and international crimes means the UK government can't feign ignorance."
In response to the letters, a spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said that the global, 20-country F-35 programme has "a significant dependence on the UK, which provides unique and critical components".
"It is not possible to suspend licensing of components to Israel without undermining the programme overall, including its broader strategic role in NATO and our support to Ukraine," the spokesperson said.
“We have an unwavering commitment to the security not just of this country but to our allies around the world, especially at a time when we face increased global insecurity and volatility.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson directed Middle East Eye to comments made by Foreign Secretary David Lammy earlier this month in which he also noted that suspending all F-35 licences would undermine the global supply chain.’
Matters have now reached an impasse however in this case which actually began all the way back in last December, so this story has been going ignored in the mainstream media for basically a year and it’s been independent outlets like Middle East Eye that have carried this story and have continued to do so.
A deadline was issued by the GLAN and Al-Haq of 4pm yesterday at time of writing for the UK to cease its continued exports of F-35 jet parts and that if this was not done, then they would instruct the High Court to order a halt to all arms exports if the policy were not reversed.
Well now that deadline has passed and the two organisations have made good on their threat, as a new hearing at the High Court will now commence on Monday. Next week could begin with fireworks and if the ruling is handed down to cease all arms exports, then many people, when the mainstream media inevitably have to cover the story at that point, will be asking why they hadn’t heard any of this before? It’s been going for almost a year, remember that!
An update on this has been posted by GLAN on their webpage, stating:
‘GLAN and Al-Haq are taking the UK government to the High Court over continued weapons exports to Israel, despite the ongoing violations of international law and UK rules which demand an immediate halt of all export licences.
Current status: New hearing date set for 18 November. The government announced on 2nd September 2024 that they have partially suspended UK weapons exports to Israel, following emergency action by GLAN and Al-Haq. There are 30 export licences which have been suspended of 350 current export licences to Israel and aid this will not include component parts for the F-35 programme. We are continuing our fight for accountability and for a total suspension of all export licences to Israel.
We have now filed our extensive evidence with the High Court detailing the unlawful and unreliable use of torture derived information by Israel to justify attacks on medical personnel and facilities as well as aid workers, which undermines the UK's reliance on Israeli assurances in their response to our case.’
Their extensive evidence is fully linked to, so if you’d care to have a read of all of that do visit glanlaw.org/israel-weapons-sales and follow the link.
So why all of a sudden did GLAN issue this deadline now though? Simply put, matters have worsened haven’t they as incredible as that seems. In northern Gaza the so called General’s Plan is being enacted, though as I wrote in a video piece the other day, this should actually be renamed Netanyahu’s Order’s because the other title gives him something to hide behind and he shouldn’t be able to hide. This is the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza as we know, on the same day GLAN and Al-Haq’s deadline expired, Israel forcibly displaced 100,000 Gazans from the north of the Gaza Strip. That’s the equivalent to the entire population of Rochdale, or Worthing, it’s more people than live in the whole of the City of Bath and that is coming directly from a UN report, the headline reading:
‘At least 100,000 people have been forced to leave northern Gaza, with UN colleagues on the ground reporting worsening conditions and Israel's continuous denial of aid delivery requests as displacement and the death toll rises there and in Lebanon amid constant airstrikes.’
F-35 jets are playing a crucial role in all of this, Israel’s air superiority is driving the leading edge of all of it’s atrocities and parts for them are constantly needed as they certain components wear out very quickly, therefore any interruption to the supply chain could essentially ground Israel’s best jets and hamper their efforts to continue to commit the grave war crimes being enabled by every nation handing them arms and parts, not least the UK, led by a man who refuses to acknowledge that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, refuses to use the word, refuses to define genocide if he disagrees and that’s because Starmer can’t. He knows as a human rights lawyer what a genocide is, but he won’t say it because that goes against his chosen path, his bought and paid for foreign policy, arguably carved out by the US anyway as it generally is.
As much as he can live in denial, as much as he might figure he’s untouchable with the Israel Lobby on his side, international law is not discretionary, it is carved in stone, it has stood the test of time for decades and so enforcing it should be a relatively simple exercise, especially when the likes of the International Court of Justice currently investigating Israel for plausible genocide is the final arbiter of that.
Starmer knows the law, he knows he’s wrong, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t think he’ll have to answer for that, yet we are witnessing absolute horror and this godawful man now leading the country, appears completely unmoved by that. The power is in our hands at the ballot and as much as we as a nation were very much anyone but the Tories last time, that needs to be carried further to include red Tories like Starmer as well. This country has got to turn it’s back on both horrendous, main parties who do not serve the people of this country and are actively harming the lives of others abroad. If we’re horrified by the events happening in Gaza at Israel’s hands and our own governments involvement in that, then we need to stop voting for them, it really is that simple, because if we keep voting for them, that then becomes a direct reflection of all of us as a people, as a nation in the eyes of the rest of the world. Do you want to be defined by the actions of Starmer? Or Sunak before him and an unhinged, overpromoted hard right winger in waiting like Kemi Badenoch? It doesn’t have to be them and if any change can ever happen in how this country is run and not just run in our interests but global peace as well, these warmongering maniacs need consigning to history and we need another way.
For more on the fallout from Starmer’s appalling comments at PMQs the other day, his flat refusal in point of fact to ever acknowledge what Israel does as a genocide no matter what they do, check out this video recommendation as a must watch if you haven’t caught up with his comments, you absolutely need to see what kind of monster he is, and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.