Britain’s Arms Trade with Israel

Ruth Tenne: Britain’s Arms Trade with Israel
Article published in Palestine Chronicle - Click here for full text

" A major lobbying of Parliament was organized on 29 November (the date where the partition of Palestine was decided upon by the UN General Assembly). Peace activists from all over Britain demanded   their MPs  to end the arms trade with Israel and to restore  economic aid to the  Palestinians.  A report issued by the Council for Advancing Arab British Understanding (CAABU) demonstrated that 24% of the lobbied MPs supported a British embargo on arms trade while 21% were against it . 55% of the lobbied MPs were, however, undecided.

As could be expected, there was some division along party lines. The majority of support for ending the arms trade with Israel came from Liberal Democrat MPs and the weakest level of support was voiced by Conservative MPs.  Nevertheless, in total, MPs showed an increasing support and interest in Palestinian issues demonstrating a growing belief that the Middle East conflict is relevant to UK interests. Yet , it seems that the  British Government is not prepared  to  take  any  steps for  ending  Israel's  escalating arsenal  which has been used with impunity against the Palestinians  and Lebanon.