News OnTheWight always welcomes a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.
This from Maggie Nelmes, Ventnor. Ed
Israel is poised for a massive assault on the city of Rafah, where 1.7 million people are seeking refuge from the fighting. The vast majority of them are women and children, who have fled to the far south of the Gaza Strip and have nowhere left to go. Even Israel’s closest allies are warning that a bloodbath will ensue, but President Netanyahu refuses to listen.
While Israel is being investigated by the International Court of Justice for possible genocide, the UK continues to sell it weapons, including components for the F-35 fighter jets that are being used to destroy Gaza. For this, Britain could be complicit in Israel’s war crimes.
European countries suspend arms sales to Israel
Other European countries have suspended arms sales to Israel – Spain, Italy and Wallonia in Belgium, and a Dutch appeals court has ordered the Netherlands government to block exports of F-35 jet parts to Israel, arguing that:
“It is undeniable that there is a clear risk the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
“Failure to impose an immediate arms embargo is indefensible”
The UK has a long history of selling weapons to Israel and of being engaged in deep levels of military co-operation, despite Israel’s many violations of international law against the Palestinian people, says Global Justice Now:
“With this latest escalation, however, the failure to impose an immediate arms embargo is indefensible.”
£146 million direct arms sales from the UK
According to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), the UK has licensed at least £482 million of arms sales to Israel, including £146 million in direct arms sales from the UK.
This also includes military equipment like components for the F-35s, described by their producer, Lockheed Martin, as “the most lethal … fighter jet in the world”.
Demands for immediate end to British arms sales to Israel
Many organisations are together demanding an immediate end to British arms sales to Israel and to our country’s cooperation with Israel’s military.
While they and I condemn Hamas’s horrific assault on Israelis at a music festival and kibbutz last October and the taking of many hostages, this does not justify their killing of 31,000 Gazan citizens and the maiming of many more, nor the destruction of the homes of Gazan civilians and denying them water and food.
Genocide
Causing mass starvation among civilian populations, the vast majority of whom are women and children, is genocide.
