Protesters in London demand an end to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip (Al Jazeera)
British activists called on their country's government to stop arming Israel in light of the genocide it is committing in the Gaza Strip, and said that the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems in the United Kingdom still continues to supply Tel Aviv with weapons that it uses against the Palestinians.
Anatolia Agency quoted activist El-Din Fahmi, a faculty member at the School of Political Studies at the University of Bristol, as saying that the orders of the International Court of Justice are sufficient to persuade Britain and other countries to stop selling weapons to Tel Aviv.
Fahmy said that the Israeli company Elbit Systems is hiding its activities in Britain. It is an Israeli aircraft manufacturing company that is a partner with the British government, and is based in a city in Bristol, and supplies Israel with weapons that it uses against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
He stressed that the possibility of Israel committing genocide in Gaza should be reason enough for the UK to stop arms sales to Israel, as “we cannot be complicit in genocide.”
He called on the British government to suspend all arms sales to Israel and distance itself from participating in this crime.
Double standards
For her part, activist Zoe Goodman, a former member of Bristol Council and the British Labor Party, criticized Britain's continued sale of weapons to Israel, and accused the British government of being indifferent to what is happening in Gaza.
She said that the British government does not want to stop selling weapons to Israel, because that generates huge amounts of money.
Goodman explained that most of the residents of her city knew about the existence of two Elbit factories, but they were not aware that the weapons manufactured by the company were sent directly to Israel and used to kill Palestinians.
The British activist compared her country's government's behavior regarding the Russian war on Ukraine and the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, and said that Britain quickly imposed sanctions on Russian companies, due to Moscow's war on Ukraine since 2022, but it is not ready to take similar measures against Israel.
It called on both Britain and the United States to stop supplying weapons to Israel and to seek to isolate it from the international community.
Goodman resigned from the City Council and from the Labor Party because of their position on Israel’s ongoing war, since October 7, 2023, on the Gaza Strip, which it has besieged for 17 years.
Britain has recently witnessed protests demanding the closure of two factories belonging to the Israeli company Elbit Systems, which protesters accuse of participating in the genocide committed against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, Britain has also witnessed a trade union and human rights movement to prevent the export of weapons to Israel, and massive demonstrations denouncing the Israeli massacres in Gaza.
Recently, a report revealed that Britain - along with Germany - tops the list of European countries that continue to support Israel with weapons, despite the accusations of genocide that are persecuting Israel in its war on the Gaza Strip.
The Supreme Court in London also rejected a lawsuit to suspend the export of British weapons to Israel in light of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza for more than 4 months, which resulted in tens of thousands of civilian casualties.
Source: Anadolu Agency