LONDON: The UK will delay a decision on banning arms exports to Israel until later this summer, The Times reported on Tuesday.
Britain’s new Foreign Secretary David Lammy ordered an immediate review into allegations of war crimes committed by Israel in its war on Gaza after Labour won the UK’s general election in early July.
There had been speculation that a ban could be imposed as early as this week, but The Times reported that the government needs more time in order to assess use of specific weaponry linked to war crimes.
Last week, the new UK Attorney General Richard Hermer KC visited Israel after the government dropped objections raised by its predecessor to a request for an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hermer was in Tel Aviv to explain the Labour government’s reasoning for its decision, and has gone on record in the past about his view that Israel’s “unlawful” occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank is “deeply damaging” to Israel and “wholly contrary to the values of tikkun olam (repairing the world) that I grew up with and continue to guide me.”
Last year, he was one of a number of leading Jewish lawyers in the UK to sign a letter urging Israel to show restraint in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
Philippe Sands KC, another signatory who also represented the Palestinians at the International Court of Justice, recently insisted that the UK should stop arming Israel after an ICJ opinion calling for the end of the occupation of the West Bank.
Currently, the UK government is not including the West Bank in its assessment of whether arms export licenses should be suspended.
The UK sold arms worth £18.2 million ($23.4 million) to Israel last year, including components manufactured for the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet program, of which Britain is a tier-one partner with the US, creating as much as 15 percent of the parts for the aircraft.
Banning the sale of parts for the plane would cause a major diplomatic and commercial issue with both Tel Aviv and Washington.
The F-35 is thought to have been used by Israel for strikes in the war in Gaza that has so far killed more than 39,000 people, according to local officials.
