on December 25, 2025, 11:11 am
https://archive.ph/VbfGm
Lede: Letter to the prime minister calls for a ban on involvement with
Israeli-owned or Israeli-supported defence companies during the war in Gaza
Four former senior British Army officers have called on the government to impose
a full arms embargo on Israel and a ban on involvement with any Israeli-owned or
Israeli-supported defence companies.
In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, they said that despite the fragile ceasefire in
place in Gaza "now is not the time to return to business as usual with the
Israeli government".
Sanctions placed on the Israeli government needed to go further, they said.
They strongly rebutted an assertion that the Israel Defence Forces followed
similar procedures to the British military and said there should be no IDF
officers on UK military courses or visits by British defence officials to
Israel.
The letter was signed by the retired Brigadier John Deverell, who served for
more than 30 years in the British Army and was defence attaché in Saudi Arabia
and Yemen at the time of the World Trade Center attacks in September 2001.
Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Graham, former director-general of the UK defence
academy, the retired Major General Peter Currie and Major General Charlie
Herbert, a former senior army commander in Afghanistan, are also signatories.
Next year the British Army will decide whether to award Elbit Systems UK, a
subsidiary of the Israeli defence company Elbit Systems, a £2 billion army
training contract to prepare soldiers for a future war.
Elbit Systems UK is part of a consortium of defence firms bidding for the
15-year contract. The other consortium is led by Raytheon UK.
The former officers pointed to remarks by a senior Ministry of Defence source
who asserted that "Israel appears to have thorough and rigorous processes for
the conduct of hostilities and targeting, that in many respects resemble our
own". The source was cited in the legal case on UK arms exports to Israel in
July last year.
They said that British military practices had clear differences with Israeli
ones, for example the IDF used indiscriminate munitions that had led to
"exceptionally disproportionate and avoidable civilian fatalities and widespread
destruction of civilian infrastructure".
More than a hundred humanitarian organisations have expressed grave concerns
regarding famine created by Israeli actions in Gaza, they said, and the IDF had
frequently targeted hospitals, schools and other sites essential for civilian
survival.
They also said there were widespread reports of detainees being tortured while
in IDF custody.
Israel has been accused of continuing to violate a ceasefire that has been in
place since October. In an attack on Friday six Palestinians were killed,
including a baby, in a school that sheltered displaced people in Gaza City,
according to hospital officials. More than 400 Palestinians have been killed by
Israel since the ceasefire came into effect, according to the Hamas-run health
ministry.
The former officers said the evidence of war crimes was "so well documented and
compelling that the British government should cut all military collaboration
with Israel forthwith, to avoid the charge of complicity".
They said RAF aircraft or British contracted aircraft should not be used for any
purpose connected with support to the IDF and there should be a suspension of
all military technology transfer.
In September it was announced that Israelis were banned from enrolling at the
Royal College of Defence Studies, a military academy, starting next year, amid
criticism that Israeli troops were being trained in Britain throughout the war
in Gaza.
RAF aircraft and other planes paid for by the Ministry of Defence were flying
over Gaza to help find the hostages kidnapped by Hamas. The mission was stopped
when the hostages were handed back to Israel.
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