Israel should face arms embargo, former government minister says

Andrew Mitchell says answers are needed about Israeli operations in Gaza, after attacks on UN facilities and schools



An arms embargo should be imposed on Israel, the former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell has said , as he warned that the level of misery and carnage in Gaza was likely to poison the remaining goodwill in the region for generations.

Mitchell also said on Wednesday that UN schools in Gaza should not have been targeted for attacks since they were places of sanctuary.

The Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield is the most senior former government minister to voice a tougher line than the coalition. His words came after the decision of the Foreign Office minister, Sayeeda Warsi, to leave the coalition for its failure to condemn the actions of Israel in Gaza.

He said, however, that he disapproved of Lady Warsi's decision on Tuesday to resign, arguing that her voice needed to be heard and that it was better to "fight your corner" in government. Warsi had claimed another minister was close to resignation and Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire was forced to deny reports that he might be the wavering minister.

Mitchell regretted her departure, he said: "She is a great loss and a very important part of the Conservative DNA. She reaches parts rather like Boris [Johnson] that others do not reach so easily."

He stressed that little purpose was served in allocating blame for the war in Gaza since that was unlikely to help bring peace or the restoration of long-term peace talks.

Asked on BBC Radio 4 whether he supported an arms embargo, he said: "I would have thought there is a strong case for weapons getting into this conflict to be minimised as much as possible, and I think it is right that an embargo should be considered." But he stressed no arms were currently being sold to Israel, and there was a case for helping Israel to develop a protective shield.

The Liberal Democrats have been pressing for a suspension of arms export licences, but appear to be meeting both legal and political obstacles. A review of the arms export licence regime is already under way, and the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, joined the debate, saying "of course no new licences should be granted where there are doubts about their end use of the military equipment being exported". He called for the government to urgently publish a review already under way. He said the existing guidance was clear that no military or dual-use equipment could be exported that could be used for internal repression, the abuse of human rights or to provoke or prolong armed conflicts.

Mitchell said: "Israel has a right to defend itself from these indiscriminate rocket attacks, but equally they are governed by international law in how they respond. There is no doubt that an enormous number of innocent people have been caught up in this action, and of course this will have effects not just in this generation but down the generations, and that is what has poisoned the well of opinion and goodwill in the Middle East."

He said questions needed to be answered about the scale of the Israeli operations in Gaza, but added: "There are very strict rules governing the conduct of international warfare, and the UN and the schools, which are places of sanctuary in Gaza, clearly should not be attacked."

Campaigners entered the second day of a rooftop protest at a factory which they claim supplies engines for drones being used in the invasion of Gaza. Twelve anti-arms campaigners scaled the factory of UAV Engines in Lichfield on Tuesday, forcing it to close down.

Since 2010, UK arms export licences to Israel worth £42m have been granted to 131 British defence manufacturers. According to government documents the equipment ranges from components for drones to "military radars", "targeting systems" and "electronic warfare equipment".

Details published last month by the Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC) show one licence has been issued in relation to the American-built Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme, which is due to start arriving in Israel from 2016, with the first aircraft becoming operational in 2018.

Arms-control campaigners say that two UK companies – including UAV Engines – were given permission to supply components for the Hermes drones which military experts say have been used in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

On Monday, Downing Street said it was reviewing the sale of arms and military goods to Israel to see whether each licence is appropriate in light of the conflict. But it said the government would not stop licensing military equipment to Israel outright because the country had a "legitimate right to self-defence".

According to its website, UAV Engines, a subsidiary of Israeli defence contractor Elbit, manufactures engines for "various size tactical uav's, target drones and single mission platforms". The company was not available for commenton Wednesday.

One of the protesters, who gave his name as Sammy, said: "This is a company that is making engines for weapons that have been used on the civilian population of Gaza and the West Bank, killing men, women and children as they leave their homes and go out to the market. The UK government has done nothing, so we have had to take this action. "

The protesters draped a banner reading "UK: Stop arming Israel" over the side of the building, and spent the morning reading out names of those killed since the latest conflict began.

Sammy said that the group has no plans to end its occupation soon. "We want to stop this company operating. We're trying to keep this factory shut so they can't make things which kill innocent civilians."

The total value of "dual-use" export licences to Israel – which can be used for both commercial and military use – was worth around £8bn last year. However, both the government and campaigners agree that the vast bulk of this – around £7.75bn – is for commercial equipment, mostly cryptographic software to supply Israel's mobile phone networks.

Documents obtained by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that since 2010 there have been £42m worth of licences to export military-only equipment to Israel – £10m of which has been licensed in the past 12 months. Licences granted in the past year include a wide range of hardware from components for naval guns to ammunition, submarines and combat aircraft parts to components for drones.

Andrew Smith from CAAT said he welcomed the government's review and the growing calls for a suspension, but added: "These licences should never have been agreed in the first place. There must be an embargo on all arms sales to Israel. When the UK sells weapons it not only facilitates the attacks, which have been condemned by the UN, but it also signals approval for the Israeli government."​

A government spokesman said the cross-departmental review of export licences was under way, but could not say how long it would take. He said no new licences had been issued for use by the Israeli military since it launched the latest attacks on Gaza.

"Suspending export licences is not a decision we take lightly and it is right that we examine the facts fully. This is the approach being taken by the vast majority of countries. We welcome the current ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, and continue to call for a political solution to be found."

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/06/israel-arms-embargo-andrew-mitchell-gaza

Kurds are being killed in their hundreds because they won't convert to islam , men women and children murdered by Muslims and buried in the desert. Can we have some condemnation of them?

nicko wrote:Kurds are being killed in their hundreds because they won't convert to islam , men women and children murdered by Muslims  and buried in the desert.  Can we have some condemnation of them?

Yes.

But unfortunately the media seems to be focused solely on Israel.

nicko wrote:Kurds are being killed in their hundreds because they won't convert to islam , men women and children murdered by Muslims  and buried in the desert.  Can we have some condemnation of them?

Hi Penfold, I condemn them all, "neighbourly murder" is the result of civil war, if you take the region as a whole this state of affairs has existed throughout history, However, between the world wars some Muslims and minority Christians had enjoyed a realtively peaceful period before the Jews pitched.

Israel has a right to exist, Egypt and Jordan accept this, for there ever to be any peace Arabs need to accept this.

Israel must learn to live within its borders, it acts like a nazi bully with an uncontrollable temper, goose stepping about the ME inflicting blitzkrieg and bleating about Anschluss, lebensraum and endlosung.

Now!,,,,it's about time western governments put Israel at the top of the table and told it enough is enough, you'll behave like an adult and learn to live within your borders, or we'll send our tanks to the region destroy your settlements and force you to live within you borders.

scrat wrote:

nicko wrote:Kurds are being killed in their hundreds because they won't convert to islam , men women and children murdered by Muslims  and buried in the desert.  Can we have some condemnation of them?

Hi Penfold, I condemn them all, "neighbourly murder" is the result of civil war, if you take the region as a whole this state of affairs has existed throughout history, However, between the world wars some Muslims and minority Christians had enjoyed a realtively peaceful period before the Jews pitched.

Israel has a right to exist, Egypt and Jordan accept this, for there ever to be any peace Arabs need to accept this.

Israel must learn to live within its borders, it acts like a nazi bully with an uncontrollable temper, goose stepping about the ME inflicting blitzkrieg and bleating about Anschluss, lebensraum and endlosung.

Now!,,,,it's about time western governments put Israel at the top of the table and told it enough is enough, you'll behave like an adult and learn to live within your borders, or we'll send our tanks to the region destroy your settlements and force you to live within you borders.

Good morning Handsome

Yet another erudite and brilliant post.

gerber wrote:

scrat wrote:
Hi Penfold, I condemn them all, "neighbourly murder" is the result of civil war, if you take the region as a whole this state of affairs has existed throughout history, However, between the world wars some Muslims and minority Christians had enjoyed a realtively peaceful period before the Jews pitched.

Israel has a right to exist, Egypt and Jordan accept this, for there ever to be any peace Arabs need to accept this.

Israel must learn to live within its borders, it acts like a nazi bully with an uncontrollable temper, goose stepping about the ME inflicting blitzkrieg and bleating about Anschluss, lebensraum and endlosung.

Now!,,,,it's about time western governments put Israel at the top of the table and told it enough is enough, you'll behave like an adult and learn to live within your borders, or we'll send our tanks to the region destroy your settlements and force you to live within you borders.

Good morning Handsome

Yet another erudite and brilliant post.

Morning Gorgeous, cheers!

Morning scrat,I'm not talking about Israel or Garza, I'm talking about how the Kurds are being murdered for not bending the knee to these Muslims. Will you comment about that? or will you ignore it to concentrate on the Israel's.

nicko wrote:Morning scrat,I'm not talking about Israel or Garza, I'm talking about how the Kurds are being murdered for not bending the knee to these Muslims. Will you comment about that? or will you ignore it to concentrate on the Israel's.

Morning chap, this thread is about the current situation in Israel and whether or not we should place sanctions and further bullshit on them, my opinion is to send in German Panzers and enforce peace.

If you want me to consider the plight of Christians and Kurds, I've already told you this is equally unacceptable, perhaps you should start another thread on this subject rather than opt for deflection here.

Scrat, you say the situation in gaza is unacceptable,then you say the situation for the Kurds is unacceptable , well why do you keep "banging" on about Israel but never mention the Kurds?

Nice bit of kit.

No answer to that then? when are you going on "jihad" oh sorry your only brave behind your keyboard.

Of course Israel should face an embargo. I think it is damn hypocritical that the EU and US should use all kinds of means of putting pressure on Russia for their 'involvement' in the Ukraine (which I totally support by the way) then Israel should be hit with at least equal if not harder penalties by the international community for its direct and unrestrained invasion and bombardment of Gaza. An arms embargo should be the tip of the iceberg to be honest- it is a disgrace what the western world is allowed them to get away with- but a clear demonstration of the old 'they're out son of a bitch' ideology...

Eilzel wrote:Of course Israel should face an embargo. I think it is damn hypocritical that the EU and US should use all kinds of means of putting pressure on Russia for their 'involvement' in the Ukraine (which I totally support by the way) then Israel should be hit with at least equal if not harder penalties by the international community for its direct and unrestrained invasion and bombardment of Gaza. An arms embargo should be the tip of the iceberg to be honest- it is a disgrace what the western world is allowed them to get away with- but a clear demonstration of the old 'they're out son of a bitch' ideology...

When you get Israeli ministers calling for Gideon Levy the award winning Israeli journalist to be killed for disagreeing with the invasion of Gaza, then if we don't use the little influence we have to bring them up short and make them take a good look at what they have become, we are doing them no favours.

Good afternoon Folks.

If Israel were to face a full on arms embargo,how would they defend themselves from Hamas attacks?