Cameron gets tough on Israel with export review
Prime Minister David Cameron has toughened his stance on Israel in the wake of a number of attacks that hit UN-run schools in Gaza.
Israel accuses Hamas of placing Palestinians in harm’s way. The UN relief and works agency has twice found rockets hidden in its Gaza schools. Yet criticism of Israel’s tactics has heightened in recent days, prompting the UK government to review all export licences of arms and military goods to the country.
New licences will be scrutinised to ensure the exports will not be used to provoke conflict in the region, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed yesterday.
“All applications for export licences are assessed on a case by case basis against strict criteria. We will not issue a licence if there is a clear risk that the equipment might be used for internal repression, or if there is a clear risk that it would provoke or prolong conflict,” a spokesman added.
Speaking yesterday, the Prime Minister called the loss of life in Gaza, most notably of children, “appalling”.
Stopping just short of the claim made by UN leader Ban Ki-moon that Israel has broken international law, Cameron nonetheless backed the UN’s sentiment, telling the BBC the organisation was “right to speak out in the way it has, because international law is very clear that there mustn’t be the targeting of civilians or the targeting of schools”.
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said Israel’s response to Hamas rocket attacks is “disproportionate”, adding: “It’s an outrage that innocent civilians should lose their lives in a location like that. It’s the third occasion that this has now happened. It once again suggests that the military tactics used by the Israeli government are not proportionate.” Clegg has in the past called for a review of arms export licenses to Israel from the UK, thought to be worth £8bn.
An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was announced late yesterday, beginning this morning and initially lasting 72 hours.