Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) released the following statement on 9th April 2024:
David Cameron’s announcement that the UK will continue arming Israel is outrageous and illegal given the mounting and indisputable evidence that Israel is committing war crimes amounting to genocide. Rishi Sunak, David Cameron, and the rest of the government, alongside the UK arms trade, are complicit in these war crimes, and they should face the consequences of this complicity.
The UK government treats Palestinian lives with utter contempt, ignoring this overwhelming evidence in favour of preserving the profits of arms dealers. This government is making a mockery of international law, ignoring over 600 legal professionals, UN experts and its own civil servants in continuing to arm Israel.
This is a decision that parliament urgently needs to scrutinise. The announcement should have been made in parliament, not at a press conference, in another country, lasting just a couple of minutes. This allowed Cameron to claim, unchallenged, that the UK is acting ‘consistently’ with legal advice. But senior Conservative MP and Foreign Affairs Committee chair, Alicia Kearns, has accused the government of suppressing legal advice stating that Israel is violating international law. It is not good enough for Cameron to simply say the UK is following the law. This legal advice must be published and subjected to parliamentary scrutiny.
International law provides a foundation for global peace. The world is not made safer by the UK arming Israel. It is made safer when states abide by international law, and when there are clear consequences if they fail to do so. Cameron’s statement gives Israel impunity for the horrific war crimes it has committed over the last six months, and gives Netanyahu the green light to proceed with his planned destruction of Rafah and inflict even more devastating atrocities on the people of Gaza.
Over the last week, the government has faced immense pressure to halt arms sales. It is still resisting. We have to keep up the pressure, not only on this government, but on the Labour Party to finally take a stand and call for a total arms embargo.
But we can’t just wait for the government to take action. It is also down to us. Every day the government allows arms sales to continue is another day arms dealers profit from genocide. Every day people are taking action against these death merchants. This must continue. Every single company that supplies weapons or military equipment must be held to account.
