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Labour government says F-35 sales more important than dead Palestinian children

Today, 13 May, a court case against the British government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza has begun. The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq are holding Keir Starmer’s regime to account for continuing to supply parts for F-35 fighter jets despite its international obligations to prevent war crimes. However, as the Guardian reported the Labour-led government will be defending itself by essentially claiming F-35 sales are more important than war crimes. 

This comes as UN agencies and humanitarian organisations have confirmed a “famine is imminent in Gaza”, with 477,000 people at risk of “catastrophic” hunger in the coming months. A UN official, meanwhile, has insisted that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war.

The lucrative business of F-35 fighter jets, which has caused so much death and destruction in Gaza, marked a highly controversial exemption from Labour’s licence suspensions in 2024. And last week, a new report showed Israel has received numerous shipments of aircraft parts in recent months. Former Foreign Office adviser Mark Smith had previously revealed efforts under Tory and Labour governments “to suppress inconvenient truths” about UK allies. He spoke about official use of bullying, manipulation, and stonewalling to prolong “complicity with war crimes“.

The High Court will now “review the decision-making process of the UK government, and rule whether they have acted unlawfully by continuing to export some arms to Israel”. The judgement will probably take a few months to arrive.

“The UK is complicit in the killing of children”. Stop arms sales to Israel now.

Activists have taken to London to call for an end to arms sales to Israel:

Independent MPs have been on the streets too:

Charities, meanwhile, have supported this call:

Save the Children, for example, stressed that:

The UK is complicit in the killing of children in Gaza

It added:

The UK has enabled attacks on civilians by continuing to approve the supply of British-made parts for F-35 fighter jets – despite acknowledging last year the clear risk that they are being used to commit violations of international law.

While the Government defends their continued supply of lethal arms to Israel in court, children are being killed by bombs and bullets at an unprecedented rate…

Keir Starmer, David Lammy: history is watching you. Is this what you want your legacy to be? …

The UK Government must not be an ally to Israel’s atrocities.

Israel committing genocide, and using famine as a weapon

Philippe Lazzarini is commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. And speaking to the BBC, he left it in no doubt that Israel is weaponising the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, which is a war crime:

The British government, meanwhile, has consistently offered Israel the political and material support it has needed to commit genocide since at least October 2023:

This court case will hopefully serve to hold the state to account for its complicity with Israel’s crimes.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.