JERUSALEM – Israeli leaders and British Jews have slammed the British government's decision announced Monday to suspend 30 arms export licences to Israel over concerns that Israel has violated international humanitarian law in its 11-month war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a post on X, called the move “shameful” and said it “does not change Israel's determination to defeat Hamas, the genocidal terrorist organisation which brutally murdered 1,200 people, including 14 Britons, on October 7.”
The Israeli leader also noted that Hamas is still holding around five British hostages, and expressed disappointment, saying “Britain's erroneous decision will only embolden Hamas, instead of standing with Israel, a fellow democracy, in defending itself against barbarism.”
“Israel is pursuing a just war by legitimate means, taking unprecedented measures to protect civilians from danger and in full compliance with international law,” he wrote.
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British Foreign Secretary David Lammy (left) shakes hands with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz after a meeting in Jerusalem on August 16, 2024, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues. (Reuters/Florion Goga)
Britain's Chief Rabbi, Lord Ephraim Mielvis, also posted on X, said the announcement “furthers the falsehood that Israel is violating international humanitarian law, when in fact Israel is making extraordinary efforts to comply with international humanitarian law” and that it “will embolden our common enemies.”
The move by a close Israeli ally has raised concerns that other countries, including the United States, may follow suit, though some say the decision is symbolic and even hypocritical, given that the British government, which reports defense orders totaling nearly $16 billion (£12 billion) in 2022, has not taken similar steps to halt exports to countries with serious human rights violations.
Instead, Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which continues to fight Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, have been the main recipients of the weapons.
“First of all, this is hypocritical and completely inconsistent,” Maj. Andrew Fox (retired), a researcher at the Henry Jackson Institute, told Fox News Digital. “But more than that, this is dangerous. Hamas is very evil, very psychotic, and we're sending a message of weakness.”
As the death toll rises amid continuing violence following Hamas attacks in Israel and Gaza, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Milvis spoke at a vigil for victims and hostages of the Hamas attacks, organised by the Council of Representatives of British Jews, outside Downing Street in central London. (Lucy North/PA Images via Getty Images)
Britain sells relatively small amounts of arms to Israel compared with other countries such as the United States and Germany, and the cancellation of only 30 of 350 existing export licences for equipment such as military planes, helicopters and drone parts is unlikely to affect its ability to fight in Gaza.
Fox said he believed the decision was purely “performative” and that the newly elected government was responding to pressure from more left-leaning elements within its support base – those who stage weekly anti-Israel protests across the country.
“Israel receives only a small fraction of British weapons and buys just 1 percent of its arsenal from the UK,” Jake Wallace-Symmons, editor of the UK's Jewish Chronicle, told Fox News Digital.
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The Israel Defense Forces are seen operating in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah. (Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson's Office)
“Countries like Qatar, which backs Hamas, Saudi Arabia, which is waging a brutal war in Yemen, Turkey, which is massacring Kurds, and the corrupt police state of Egypt are buying far more British weapons than Israel, the Middle East's only democracy,” he said, adding: “There is no evidence that the Jewish state is breaking international law, but this move appears to be an attempt to win over Muslim voters while at the same time damaging the international alliance.”
Amnesty International and the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour have published a detailed report on human rights abuses by the countries that buy most of the UK's arms.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer prepares to receive Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman at 10 Downing Street in London on August 6, 2024. (Karl Cote/Getty Images)
Britain's decision this week also marks a shift from the Biden administration's approach to the war between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7, when more than 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists crossed into Israel from Gaza and attacked military bases, residential areas, towns and a major music festival being held in the area.
Fox, a retired British army veteran, said the new stance would weaken Britain's ability to influence the course of the war in Gaza and put it in a difficult position with other close allies.
Hamas terrorists were spotted during the funeral of four of its members. The Israeli Air Force bombed the Noor Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm in the West Bank on July 3, 2024. (Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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“We will have no influence whatsoever in Jerusalem,” he said. “This would be embarrassing for the UK on the national stage and other allies will see this behaviour and risk domestic pressures influencing the UK. It will also embolden countries like Iran and Russia who are actively trying to subvert us at home when they see this working.”
A special adviser to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy did not respond to a request for comment.
