Grandson of Winston Churchill urges UK to cease arms sales to Israel
Calls to suspend arms sales to Israel are gaining momentum in the UK, with the support of the late UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s grandson. This move comes in response to the tragic incident on Monday, where an Israeli airstrike took the lives of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza.
In an interview with The Guardian, Conservative Party lawmaker Nicholas Soames emphasized the importance of the UK communicating a clear message to Israel in response to its actions in Gaza.
“It’s high time for that to occur now. I believe it’s important for us to demonstrate that we are no longer willing to tolerate these ongoing disasters,” Soames emphasized when questioned about whether the UK should cease arms trades.
While Soames conceded that the UK’s contribution to Israel’s arsenal would be “tiny” and exports are “probably” parts, he said it’s the “message that matters”.
Soames is joining fellow Conservative MPs David Jones, Paul Bristow, Flick Drummond, and former minister Hugo Swire, who have also called for the UK to stop its arms trade with Israel.
A fourth Tory MP, Mark Logan, called for the UK to “seriously reassess” its exports to Israel in light of the WCK killings.
The UK has been facing pressure to halt its arms exports to Israel as the nation erupted in anger over the death of three British aid workers who are a part of the seven killed.
Conservative peer Peter Ricketts, a former national security advisor and permanent secretary at the UK Foreign Office, told BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme that a condition for sending arms is that the company complies with international law, and the time has come to send Israel that “signal”.
At the same time, over 600 legal experts, including three former British Supreme Court justices, warned the UK government that the nation risks violating international law by continuing arms sales to Israel.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has described the killings as an “awful, awful tragedy”, telling The Sun that arms licenses are kept under “careful” review and “regulations and procedures” are followed.
