Yesterday foreign secretary David Lammy announced a partial suspension of arms sales to Israel.
Our foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran welcomed the move but said it was overdue:
This action should have been taken long ago by the previous government, who failed to take any leadership on the matter. Liberal Democrats welcome this announcement as a step forward from the government.
Liberal Democrat MPs will now carefully scrutinise the details of the Foreign Secretary’s announcement, including those export licences which the Government has not suspended. We are concerned that the decision is made solely on risk of use in Gaza and not the West Bank.
Every day seems to bring new dreadful scenes from the region, and the UK must be doing everything that it can to ensure that an immediate bilateral ceasefire is secured – to put an end to the humanitarian devastation in Gaza, ensure the hostages are brought home, and open the door to a two-state solution.
Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael also welcomed David Lammy ‘s announcement but said that the Government needs to go further to drive peace talks to end the violence in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Alistair said:
This is a welcome step to encourage the de-escalation of attacks in Gaza and beyond – but ministers must take further action if we are going to see meaningful progress. If there is a clear risk that some weapons could be used in violation of international humanitarian law then it raises the question of why any weapons are considered safe to be sold.
No one questions the right of Israel to defend itself but that is not and never can be a blank cheque, particularly in the use of UK-made weapons. There are serious and widespread concerns about the disproportionate attacks Israel has made and the losses of civilian lives in the past year.
The government must act to suspend arms exports to Israel and use all our influence to mitigate this humanitarian disaster. We need to redouble our efforts to secure an immediate bilateral ceasefire. I shall be working with colleagues on all sides of Parliament to drive the government to go further.
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5 Comments
Good to see Layla and Alistair calling for further government action to deal with Israel’s war. Netanyahu’s defiant reaction today shows this is vital so that we play our part in stirring international action further. Israel’s revenge war is in no one’s interest but a ceasefire alone of course will not solve the problem. There has to be a recognition of Palestine, a stop to Israeli settlements in Palestine, action against the violent settlers and bringing of war criminals to the ICC. To achieve this while protecting Israeli citizens may need an international force to be present in the region; will that require too much cost or is the prices worth paying to ensure peace for at least the next 10 years ?
I fail to see how this action will help the people of Gaza or Israel. To me it’s clearly just just a measure to placate Labour’s back benchers. Politics and bad politics at that.
Let us not underestimate the courage it took to ban even these 30 licenses… Starmer/Lammy have been attacked in the media and today, by Sunak, in PMQ’s for even this modest action..
The ‘Trump machine’ in the US has threatened the government, the UK’s chief Rabbi has claimed it ‘would encourage Israel’s enemies in the region’, Netanyahu is (understandably) incandescent with rage, etc..
Doing what is right takes courage and determination..Does it go far enough? in my opinion, no… BUT, so often, “Perfect is the enemy of good”
The right to a state of your own comes with an obligation to respect the sovereignty, peace and security of your neighbours. How can we be sure that the Palestinians understand and accept this? If there was a ceasefire how can Israel’s future security be assured without the renewed occupation of Gaza which Netanyahu wants?
@Mark Frankel 4th Sep ’24 – 6:35pm…
Why must the Palestinian people have to ‘prove their worthiness’ before they are ‘allowed’ a state?
Israel hasn’t and doesn’t even respect the Arab residents in Israel and certainly not in their illegal occupation of the West Bank etc.. It is not just the UN, and almost every other nation that holds their occupation unjust; even the independent Supreme Court of Israel has ruled that Israel is holding the West Bank under “belligerent occupation”..
Charles Kingsley’s Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby..comes to mind..