Selling weapons to Israel is a breach of international law.

This is not my opinion. It is the judgement of 600 British legal eagles, including three former members of the UK Supreme Court. They have been joined by 130 parliamentarians and the three main Opposition parties have demanded a debate on the issue.

It is also the verdict of the governments of Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Japan and Spain. They have all suspended arms shipments to Israel.

All the above agree that Israel is breaking a number of international laws with its attacks on civilians in Gaza. Furthermore, that countries that supply the Israeli government with weapons are complicit in breaking those laws.

So what laws is Israel breaching? To start with there is Article 7 of the UN Arms Trade Treaty which “prohibits the export of arms where is an overriding risk that the weapons can be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law.”

It is an international law which has been enforced by Britain in the past. In 2019 the British Court of Appeals used it to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia based on the Saudis indiscriminate bombing of Yemen.

There is also the 1948 Geneva Convention Against Genocide, which, ironically, was enacted as a response to the killing of 6 million Jews in the Nazi Holocaust. This convention prohibits “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group.” It goes on to describe the prohibited acts: “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the group as a whole.”

The Israeli government and their supporters say that claims that they are breaching international law are “nonsense.” But, so far the Israeli Defence Force has caused the death of more than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza and seriously injured 52,000 more. Eighty-five percent – 1.9 million people have had their homes destroyed by Israeli bombs. Gaza’s hospitals are medical rubble. Israel’s refusal to allow food and water into Gaza have created famine conditions. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Gazans are “the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded.”

On Thursday, President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had what press officers euphemistically call “a full and frank” telephone conversation. The president demanded an “immediate ceasefire” and that Netanyahu take “specific, concrete and measurable” steps to ease civilian suffering and protect aid workers.

The telephone call was immediately followed by a Brussels press conference by Secretary of State Antony Blinken who said: “If we do not see the changes we need to see, there will be changes in our policy.” This not-so cryptic comment was interpreted as meaning limitations on how US weapons are used. The United States provides $4.1 billion in military aid to Israel which represents 69 percent of Israel’s foreign-bought military needs. Germany is second with about 25 percent.

The final impetus for the American threats and the British calls for a suspension of arms sales, was the killing on Monday of seven Western aid workers—a Pole, a US-Canadian, three Brits, an Australian and a Palestinian driver. All seven were from World Central Kitchen (WCK) which had been distributing food. They had just picked up 100 tons of food aid when all three vehicles in which they were travelling were hit by Israeli missiles within four minutes of each other. Each vehicle had the WCK logo emblazoned on its roof.

Initially the Israelis said the deaths were a “tragic mistake.” Netanyahu added: “This happens in war.” But an amazingly fast IDF investigation announced on Friday that the deaths were the result of a failure to follow the IDF’s own rules of engagement. As a result a Colonel and Major have been fired and three other officers have been reprimanded. The IDF said further action may be taken against the officers.

The deaths of the WCK workers brings to over 200 the number of aid workers who have died trying to keep Gazan civilians alive. As a result of the latest deaths, a number of aid organisations have pulled out of Gaza. They cannot risk their workers’ lives. WCK has suspended its operations so has the American Near East Refugee Aid.  Since October, WCK has served 43,000 meals. It was one of the biggest food aid operations in Gaza. Their withdrawal lends credence to the claim that Israel is weaponising famine which could be construed as “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the group as a whole.”

* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and author of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “America Made in Britain". To subscribe to his email alerts on world affairs click here.