Kinyarwanda
English
UK plans to stop selling arms to Israel
The families of three British aid workers killed in the bombing of a humanitarian convoy in Gaza denounce an “inhumane act”. In London, Foreign Minister David Cameron had to cut short his Easter vacation to deal with this incident, for which the Israeli army accepted responsibility. In the United Kingdom, more and more politicians are now calling for an end to arms exports.
The Liberal Democrats and the opposition Scottish Nationalist Party are calling for an immediate suspension of British arms exports to Israel - a trade the government estimates at 45 million Euros a year, a tiny share of Israeli purchases on the arms market.
The main opposition party, Labor, is demanding that the executive publish the memos from its legal advisers. The Labor position is that if there are tangible risks Israel will violate international conventions, and then exports must be stopped.
It's not just a matter of opposition: at least three Conservative MPs have also taken a position for a cessation of sales, joined by several former diplomats. The latter believed that stopping exports would send a strong signal to Israel.
Faced with these increasingly numerous calls, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, doesn’t rule out a suspension. “Israel’s behaviour is increasingly intolerable,” he declared, recalling that exports were subject to strict rules, including compliance with international conventions.
