Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted on Tuesday: “Hamas is still holding many innocent Jewish hostages while Israel tries to prevent a repeat of the 7th October massacre. Why are Lammy and Starmer abandoning Israel? Do they want Hamas to win?”
Hamas is still holding many innocent Jewish hostages while Israel tries to prevent a repeat of the 7th October massacre. Why are Lammy and Starmer abandoning Israel? Do they want Hamas to win?
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 3, 2024
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced on Monday that the UK was suspending 30 out of 350 arms export licenses with Israel, effective immediately. The decision was taken over concerns there was a risk the arms could be used to commit “serious violations of international humanitarian law,” Lammy said, claiming that the move did not constitute an arms embargo or blanket ban (Britain Suspends Arms Exports to Israel to Save Hamas in Gaza).
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted Tuesday morning:
Days after Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, the UK government suspended thirty arms licenses to Israel. This shameful decision will not change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that savagely murdered 1200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens. Hamas is still holding over 100 hostages, including 5 British citizens. Instead of standing with Israel, a fellow democracy defending itself against barbarism, Britain’s misguided decision will only embolden Hamas.
Israel is pursuing a just war with just means, taking unprecedented measures to keep civilians out of harm’s way and comporting fully with international law. Just as Britain’s heroic stand against the Nazis is seen today as having been vital in defending our common civilization, so too will history judge Israel’s stand against Hamas and Iran’s axis of terror.
With or without British arms, Israel will win this war and secure our common future.
Phil Rosenberg, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told BBC, “On the day that those beautiful people were being buried, kidnapped from a music festival like Reading or Glastonbury, the UK decides to send a signal that it’s Israel that it wants to penalize, and that is a terrible, terrible message to be sending both to Israel in its hour of need, also to Hamas about the consequences – where consequences are for the horrific actions that Hamas has taken as a terrorist organization, but also to other allies and adversaries around the world. So, it is the wrong decision taken very much at the wrong time.”
When questioned about whether his decision had caused dissatisfaction among both parties involved in the conflict, Defense Secretary John Healey told Radio 4: “This is a government with a duty to the rule of law. This is not a decision about pleasing any side in this.”
He stressed that his government stood firm in support of Israel’s right to self-defense, asserting that the decision to cut off crucial military supplies “will not have a material impact on Israel’s security”
Labour Friends of Israel said: “Since October 7, Israel has come under repeated, unprovoked, and indiscriminate attack by Iran and its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. We do not believe that restrictions on UK arms sales will help bring the tragic conflict in Gaza to a close or help ensure the release of the hostages, six of whom Hamas brutally murdered just days ago. Moreover, we are deeply concerned by the signal this sends to Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of state terrorism and Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine. We fear therefore that these restrictions risk encouraging Israel’s enemies, leading to greater escalation rather than de-escalation.”
Conservative shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell who was behind the move to suspend any arms ban against Israel, said: “Announcing an arms embargo on the day when Israel is burying its murdered hostages, and within weeks of British military personnel and arms defending Israel from Iranian attack, is not easy to swallow. Having now looked at Labour’s memorandum, it has all the appearance of something designed to satisfy Labour’s backbenches, while at the same time not offending Israel, an ally in the Middle East. I fear it will fail on both counts.”
