Mont MP leads debate on arms trade with Israel calling for immediate suspension on exports

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Transcript

00:00I rise today to speak on British arms and military cargo export controls.

00:06Specifically, our exports to Israel amid one of the most devastating conflicts in modern memory.

00:13It's horrific. It's a slaughterhouse. That's what it is. A slaughterhouse.

00:21These are the words of Tom Potocca, a British doctor working in Khan Yunus,

00:26as he urged world leaders to stop talking and do something.

00:32Since October 7th, Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

00:38As a father, the thought of the loss of a single child is heartbreaking.

00:43The estimate of more than 50,000 children killed or injured in the Gaza Strip is inconceivable.

00:50Yet despite this scale of destruction, our government has continued to export weapons to Israel.

00:57Without pause, without transparency and without apparent regard for international humanitarian law.

01:05Despite the UK government suspending around 30 of 350 export licences in September 2024,

01:13a new report exposing UK arms exports to Israel uses data from the Israel Tax Authority

01:21to reveal the sheer volume we continue to send.

01:25So finally, I ask the Minister, where is our red line?

01:31Madam Deputy Speaker, I call on this government to suspend all arms exports to Israel

01:37to ensure that no British-made weapons are used in Israel's brutal plans

01:43to annex, starve and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population.

01:48The credibility of this House depends not just on what we condemn, but on what we enable.

01:58And history will remember, we enabled too much.

02:02It is accepted on all sides of this House that as the government has made clear,

02:07what was witnessed on the 7th of October 2023 was not an act of liberation, but an act of barbarism by Hamas.

02:15And over the many months of this conflict, the UK government has made the case for an immediate ceasefire,

02:21the release of all the hostages detained, the protection of civilians, access for aid and aid workers to Gaza,

02:28and the need for a path to long-term peace and security in the region.

02:33So the responsibility of Hamas is clear, but so too is the appalling humanitarian crisis

02:40which has since unfolded in Gaza as a result of Israel's subsequent actions.

02:46The way in which Israel is conducting its operations is indefensible, disproportionate

02:53and, in the view of the UK government, counterproductive to any lasting peace settlement.

02:59The government's policy remains that the only way to secure peace and stability

03:03is through an immediate ceasefire, the release of the hostages held captive by Hamas,

03:08the protection of civilians and the lifting of all Israeli restrictions on aid being sent into Gaza.

03:15Last month, at the United Nations Security Council, the UK government made the case for urgent humanitarian aid to enter Gaza

03:23and expressed our outrage at both the killing of Palestinian Red Cross Red Crescent workers

03:29and the strikes on the UN Office for Project Services compound in March.

03:35We also issued a statement with 27 international partners on the mechanisms needed to deliver those vital aid supplies.

03:43Together with the leaders of France and Canada, we made clear our strong opposition to the latest expansion of Israel's military operations.

03:53Let me turn next to the actions taken by this government in support of these statements.

04:03We have supported the restoring of funding for UNRWA.

04:07We have suspended arms licences.

04:09We have provided £129 million in humanitarian assistance to the occupied Palestinian territories in the last financial year.

04:18And the government has decided to suspend negotiations on the upgraded free trade agreement with this issue.

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