THE UK Government has almost trebled the number of arms exports licences covered under its partial embargo on Israel, it has emerged.
More than 80 licences for items that could be used by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza have been rejected, nearly three times as many as were covered when the limited ban was introduced in September 2024, The Jewish Chronicle reports.
When the ban was first brought in, it covered around 30 licences but that has changed since stricter measures against illegal settlements were brought earlier this month.
Middle East Minister Stephen Doughty said: “We have suspended or refused over 80 licences now. The new decisions that we took on September 8 mean there's effectively now a double lock of arms exports.
“They have to be considered both in relation to the existing conditions that we set in relation to international humanitarian law violations but also now we have to consider the unlawfulness of the occupation. So that's a very significant step forward.”
The minister told a Council for Arab-British Understanding panel at Labour conference that he had “personally gone through every single licence” to ensure they were not being used in Gaza.
Addressing the controversy around the continued export of F-35 bomber plane parts to Gaza, Doughty said the UK was only sending “spares” into a global pool.
He told the paper: “We've stopped direct exports of F-35s to Israel. But the spares that we produce are going to the global spares report, if we were to pull those that would potentially have very serious implications to the whole programme.
“It's crucial to our security and that of our allies. It's been extensively litigated, including in the courts.”
Elsewhere, Doughty insisted there was “a lot of misleading information around there about licensing” as he argued that some licences covered by the arms export regime covered items like medication for cystic fibrosis and body armour for journalists and NGOs.
Speaking at the same panel, Foreign Affairs Committee chair Emily Thornberry said that Britain could contribute to the F-35 parts pool while stipulating that UK-made parts could not be used in Israel.
She said: “I don't think this is a matter of legality, it's a question of politics.”
Thornberry said this was the approach taken by the Netherlands, adding: “What you don't want to do is to get in the way of F-35s being built, especially since we rely on F-35s being built.
“What we could do is the same as the Dutch have done, which is they provide parts of the F-35s, and what you have to do is send the parts off to America, and America use those parts to build the F-35.
“What the Dutch have done is they have put them in boxes, which they've written ‘not to be used in Israel’. That is what we should do.
“We should just say, well, of course we will provide the parts that will be put into this chain, but they are not to be used on any plane that is being sent to Israel.
“There's been a legal challenge in Holland as well. It is a red herring. It is a political decision, and I personally think we should do that.”
