UK support for Israel ‘unshakeable’ says Healey amid backlash over arms decision

Defence Secretary John Healey said the UK had a duty to suspend some arms exports over concerns they could be used in breach of international law.

Defence Secretary John Healey leaving Downing Street, London, after a Cabinet meeting. Picture date: Tuesday July 23, 2024. (PA Wire)

Defence Secretary John Healey insisted Israel’s security will not be weakened by the suspension of some arms exports as the Government faced a backlash from Tel Aviv and Jewish leaders in the UK.

The UK has suspended around 30 out of a total of approximately 350 licences because of concerns they could be used in violations of international humanitarian law in the Gaza conflict.

The UK’s Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said the decision “beggars belief” at a time when “six hostages murdered in cold blood by cruel terrorists were being buried by their families”.

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said he was “deeply disheartened” and also criticised the timing of the announcement following the murder of the hostages in Gaza.

Mr Healey insisted the Government’s support of Israel remained “unshakeable” but acknowledged that Mr Gallant had found the news “unwelcome”.

The list of suspended items includes important components which go into military aircraft, including F-16 jets and drones, as well as naval systems and targeting equipment.

Defence Secretary John Healey said the UK’s decision to suspend some arms exports would not weaken Israel’s security.

He told Times Radio: “It will not have a material impact on Israel’s security.”

Mr Healey said he informed his Israeli counterpart, Mr Gallant, about the suspension before it was announced.

“As I said to the defence minister Yoav Gallant yesterday when I spoke to him before the announcement, we have a duty to follow the law, but this does not alter our unshakable commitment to support Israel’s right to self-defence and to the defence of Israel if it comes under direct attack again, just as UK jets back in April helped intercept Iranian drones and missiles that were targeted directly at Israeli civilians.”

Mr Healey said Mr Gallant “found the call unwelcome”.

“That’s not surprising, but sometimes your closest friends are the ones that need to tell the hardest truths.”

Announcing the suspension on Monday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said a review conducted by the UK Government could not “arbitrate on whether or not Israel has breached international humanitarian law” in Gaza, but ministers have a legal duty to review export licences.

Mr Healey said it was the findings of that review and the Government’s legal obligations that determined the widely-criticised timing of the announcement.

Sir Ephraim said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “It beggars belief that the British Government, a close strategic ally of Israel, has announced a partial suspension of arms licences at a time when Israel is fighting a war for its very survival on seven fronts forced upon it on the 7th October, and at the very moment when six hostages murdered in cold blood by cruel terrorists were being buried by their families.

“As Israel faces down the threat of Iran and its proxies, not just to its own people, but to all of us in the democratic west; this announcement feeds the falsehood that Israel is in breach of international humanitarian law, when in fact it is going to extraordinary lengths to uphold it.

“Sadly, this announcement will serve to encourage our shared enemies.”

Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, criticised the decision as sending a “terrible message” in Israel’s “hour of need”.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “On the day that those beautiful people were being buried, kidnapped from a music festival like Reading or Glastonbury, the UK decides to send a signal that it’s Israel that it wants to penalise, and that is a terrible, terrible message to be sending both to Israel in its hour of need, also to Hamas about the consequences – where consequences are for the horrific actions that Hamas has taken as a terrorist organisation, but also to other allies and adversaries around the world.

“So it is the wrong decision taken very much at the wrong time.”

Mr Gallant said he was “deeply disheartened” by the decision “at a time when we mourn six hostages who were executed in cold blood by Hamas inside tunnels in Gaza”.

A step like the one taken by the UK now sends a very problematic message to the Hamas terrorist organization and its backers in Iran

Israel Katz, Israeli foreign minister

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said it was the latest in a series of decisions which had raised concern in Tel Aviv, including restoring UK funding for the UNRWA humanitarian agency in Gaza and the decision not to challenge the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) application for an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Israel is a law-abiding state that operates in accordance with international law and has an independent and respected judicial system – we expect friendly countries, such as the UK, to recognise this all year round, especially just days after Hamas terrorists executed six Israeli hostages, during intense negotiations for the release of the hostages and for a ceasefire, and in light of the recent threats by the Iranian regime to attack the state of Israel,” he said.

“A step like the one taken by the UK now sends a very problematic message to the Hamas terrorist organisation and its backers in Iran.”

Former prime minister Boris Johnson questioned why Mr Lammy and Sir Keir Starmer were “abandoning Israel”,  asking: “Do they want Hamas to win?”

Factors key to the Government’s decision include “insufficient” humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, and reports of the mistreatment of detainees, a summary of the process undertaken by ministers revealed.

Summary papers published by the Government said the assessment which Mr Lammy relied upon for his decision found “Israel has not fulfilled its duty as Occupying Power to ensure – to the fullest extent of the means available to it – those supplies essential to the survival of the population of Gaza.

“It has concluded that the level of aid remains insufficient.”

It also said there “have been credible claims of the mistreatment of detainees” at a “volume and consistency” which suggest “at least some instances of mistreatment contrary to IHL” (international humanitarian law).

However, the Government suggested that it had not been possible to come to a “determinative judgment” on “allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities”, partly because of the “opaque and contested information environment in Gaza”.