September 4, 2024 - 7:00am
The United Kingdom has become the first European country to announce it will suspend 30 export licenses to Israel for arms used in its war in Gaza. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the House of Commons on Monday that while the Government “could not arbitrate on whether Israel has breached international humanitarian law”, there was a “clear risk” that British arms exports “might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded, condemning the decision: “Instead of standing with Israel, a fellow democracy defending itself against barbarism, Britain’s misguided decision will only embolden Hamas.” Conservative opposition figures, including Boris Johnson, echoed Netanyahu’s criticism, as did Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who posted on X that it “beggars belief […] at a time when Israel is fighting a war for its very survival on seven fronts forced upon it on the 7th October”.
The Labour government’s decision is, however, not unprecedented, nor is it catastrophic for Israel. Previous administrations led by Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have all imposed similar restrictions during past Israeli military campaigns. British companies currently hold 350 export licenses to Israel, and British defence exports to Israel amounted to just £18 million in 2023, down from £42 million in 2022. What’s more, British exports to Israel account for only 0.02% of Israel’s total military imports, far less than contributions from Italy, Germany, and the United States.
Critically, the suspension did not include components for F-35 fighter jets — part of a multilateral programme involving the United States — that have been used in Gaza. In a speech at Policy Exchange on 29 August, a former national security advisor to Donald Trump, Robert O’Brien, warned that a suspension of British cooperation “has the potential to tear open the special relationship”.
Nevertheless, Britain’s decision carries symbolic weight and reflects the new government’s evolving stance on the Middle East conflict and its commitment to adhering to international legal frameworks in foreign policy. Although the announcement came a day after the discovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages, the Labour Party has been scrutinising British defence exports to Israel for months.
In April, while serving as the shadow foreign secretary, Lammy urged the Conservative government to release its legal justification for continuing to grant export licenses and pledged that Labour would reassess the process if it came into power. But with Keir Starmer cancelling the appointment of Gwyn Jenkins as national security adviser and expanding the defence review, Labour is now getting started on foreign policy. The Government has also restored funding to UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, and reversed its opposition to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
Britain has limited capacity to exert pressure on the Israeli government and, in the broad picture of the war, the suspension of some export licenses is inconsequential. As the conflict nears its one-year anniversary on 7 October, however, it hovers between a potential settlement and further escalation. On Monday Israel experienced its largest domestic protests against the war, and the government is being pressured to secure a deal for the surviving hostages. Meanwhile, the IDF is executing a large operation in Jenin in the West Bank, just as the repetitive cycle of artillery fire over the border into Lebanon threatens an expansion of the war.
Britain’s decision is representative of wider, though quieter, opposition to Israel’s action in the international community: it is a clear sign that military exports are considered one of the few available mechanisms to influence Netanyahu. In March Canada voted to suspend arms sales to Israel after a non-binding parliamentary vote, and two months later the Biden administration briefly paused shipments in the lead-up to the IDF’s attack on Rafah.
The United States supplies around 69% of arms sales to Israel and is the only nation which could really forcefully change Netanyahu’s behaviour. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has ruled out the suspension of weapons sales. But Joe Biden is a president in search of a legacy and, historically, there has been no more enticing legacy for American presidents than a deal in the Middle East. For the Biden administration, halting weapons sales is one of the final cards on the table — and the Americans may just play it.
Angus Reilly is Assistant Editor at Engelsberg Ideas. He is writing a book about Henry Kissinger in the Second World War and a biography of David Owen.
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SubscribeEnjoyable and perceptive. This is proving to be an excellent series. Keep them coming.
Fine article. Nice change from the doom & gloom of war on the horizon.
Precisely. ” this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England !”
Thanet and Ramsgate has so much to offer but this article is brimming with tedious stereotypes. Manston isn’t a local micro culture war, this is incorrect.
Manston is a threat to our environment, health, well being, tourist economy and many other factors. The campaign for Judicial Review has national and global reach as people of every political persuasion, and from all geographies, scratch their heads and wonder why only the UK government would OPEN a new airport given the Paris Agreement, Covid and the seeming meltdown of the aviation industry in front of our eyes.
More than this, they wonder why a Government would think doing so at 300 feet over parts of Ramsgate is a good idea, despite their experts in the planning inspectorate also recommending a resounding no. Going from a few military or commercial flights a week to the monstrous volumes needed to turn a profit is hardly continuation of our aviation heritage. Our past and our future are not, and cannot be, the same.
Planes low enough for the sound to be over 100Db, low enough you can wave at the pilot and make your house shake. Low enough to wake up your children. Low enough for aviation fumes to fall upon us as jet engines scream over our heads every 15 minutes if the flight volumes in the DCO application are to be believed.
Hardly a micro culture war n’est pas?
Sad but 100% true
A splendid account of this charming little Thanet town.
Its Regency architecture makes it a real gem, a sort of seaside mini-Bath! Although brick and stucco, its bow fronted house in Liverpool Lawn and Spencer Square are a delight, as are both the four storied Royal Crescent and nearby Nelson
Crescent.
The fact that Caesar landed nearby on his two “smash and grab” raids, adds yet another attraction.
.
Fact: More Georgian houses in Ramsgate than Bath!
Thank you.
I very much enjoyed the evocative description of ‘gaps and folds of dazzling cliffs’ and the romance of smugglers’ caves and seals. As Aris clearly connects with the beauty of our town, it’s sad he doesn’t feel fully ‘integrated’ as this is most definitely not the experience of all. There’s an enviable sense of community and a rich mix of people who’ve been here for generations and those who’ve recently arrived, not just from London. Lazy labels and the assumptions they carry are never helpful and ‘DfL’, with its xenophobic undertone, is particularly divisive. It doesn’t reflect the way people rub along in Ramsgate – a snapshot of the harbour pubs, Friday market or supermarket queue would reveal a healthy combination of ancient and modern Thanetians in all their guises. A cargo airport at Manston would see 5 planes an hour coming into land less than 1000feet overhead, day and night, making houses shake. Knowing what this would do to a unique royal harbour, let alone its seals and bird life, people have risen in opposition, to back one resident’s judicial review. Those people include pensioners who once worked in the harbour, construction workers worried about the polluting impact on their kids and small businesses in the harbour, aware their patrons won’t be back for that beer or coffee when they’re deafened every 15 minutes. Please keep writing about the town’s history – eyes and ears fully open!
Whilst I enjoyed the history aspect of the article I’m a little taken aback at some of the comments within it, and the assumptions they make. As a person that moved here several years ago you could class me as a dfl, what decisive language! This is my home, where I love, the place I don’t want to leave. Where I mix with everyone down here, am on the Town Council (Labour controlled since May 2019)to try and improve the area for all and am busy fighting a cargo hub that will be less than a mile away from a Georgian seaside location, with more traffic to it than East Midlands Airport!
Am I alone in doing so? Are all people that worry about the climate, their children’s schooling being interrupted 5 times an hour, noise pollution etc all because a company headed up by a struck off solicitor, who ran the airport into failure two times before, from London? As a Councillor, who got elected on promising to fight the threat, that’s a resounding no.
Ramsgate is a beautiful, warm, charming town with a strong community feel. Volunteer groups help garden, litter pick, hand out food parcels. New people into the area, join in and feel welcome. By all means, anyone reading this join us, stay in our many hotels, enjoy the sandy beaches, we’d welcome you wherever you come from. There’s a lot on offer.
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Very interesting article, I’ve lived in Thanet all my life, and it has changed, some good some bad. It would be nice to have manston back to create jobs, and to push up wages, as although in the rich South Thanet is a deprived area with real poverty. The dfls, in some ways help in other hinder, houses are being built to service people from London, pushing pricing out of the means of local people. We have drug problems,crime, anti social behaviour, like any area, to few police to deal with it. But that’s the same as most places.
Sadly, as the Planning Inspectorate pointed out after their exhaustive research, the job forecast is overblown as cargo is largely automated. The area undoubtedly needs employment, but this is a false wrecker’s light.
Not quite Ramsgate I know, but Pegwell Bay was once a base for SRN-4 hovercraft that roared back and forth across the Channel.
The route crossed the Goodwin Sands, so at lowish tides we would zoom along over dry land, the nearest ships way off in the distance.
Happy Days!
Fantastic article, Aris.
I really enjoy this series on British towns and this article in particular. It is very well written. Now I’ve watched a couple of YouTube videos on Ramsgate & Thanet and would love to visit.
Come on down, the water’s lovely!
Excellent writer, this guy.
I lived in Ramsgate for a few lovely years. as a visitor from Luton said “it’s something different”. The sea the light and the very different micro climate, (Thanet is one of the few places that grow brussle sprouts on account of the climate) make it a magical place. However as a local friend said, it is almost impossible to earn a living there.
Ramsgate has a serious problem. It is all but impossible to trade with tye rest of the economy on account if the transport layout.. A one hour drive from Ramsgate gets you 60 miles to the traffic jams on the M20 and the M25. From there it is another hour in a traffic jam to get to the Dartford crossing or Sevenoaks. Heading south west the road effectively stops at Folkestone. (The road from Folkestone to Eastbourne is a winding single carriage country lane full of sharp bends that take expensive time to negotiate). Trade and links with the South coast are simply not possible on the existing London centred transport network. Trade with Essex and the Midlands is equally constrained. Especially when you have to drive past your competitors to get to a customer. They, of course are ahead of you. The only competitive edge you can use is to be cheap. That means cheap labour and low property costs. Both of which contribute to poverty not riches.
Like most seaside towns it is isolated at the end of a dead-end road surrounded on three sides by fish. The improved railway link will simply allow more DFL’s to buy second homes causing more social division between London money and local earnings.
The only real cure is investment in new infrastructure to allow trade around the coast instead of towards London. But it won’t happen because no one has the vision. In another half a century, there will still be poverty, drugs, deprivation alongside London riches. We can chalk that one up to the failed public sector who do not have the imagination to do anything apart from what was done before and simply repeat the failures of their previous incumbents.
https://www.crowdjustice.co…
I’m interested in the romantic reference to ‘trees along the seafront being bent by the wind’ – there are a few palms in pots by the beach (which get removed in winter) but otherwise Ramsgate’s seafront is regrettably treeless.
Went to a pawn brokers/second hand shop in Ramsgate.
Stocked with bongs and massive knives, says it all about Ramsgate
But you would probably find the same goods in any such establishment anywhere in the land.
Would it be any ‘better’ in say, salubrious Hull?
Nothing ‘says it all’ about Ramsgate or anywhere else
There’s a pawnbroker shop in Hammersmith, Chelsea end, that sells flick knives and drug paraphernalia. I guess that says it all about that area of West London, non?