Britain has made clear that it will not follow the United States in withholding arms shipments to Israel, with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron speaking of a “very fundamental difference” between the two countries in this regard.
Cameron said during a press conference on Thursday, “The United States is a huge government supplier of weapons to Israel. But there is no British government supply of weapons to Israel. We have a number of licenses, and I believe that our defense exports to Israel constitute less than 1% of the total.”
The British minister confirmed that London will continue to adopt its procedures for licensing arms sales to Tel Aviv.
The United States suspended sending two shipments of weapons to Israel, one containing 1,800 bombs, each weighing 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms), and the other 1,700 bombs, each weighing 500 pounds (227 kilograms).
Washington is the main supporter of Israel in its war on Gaza, politically and militarily, but it expressed its opposition to launching a large military operation in Rafah, and President Joe Biden said that he would not send weapons for use in population centers, as he put it.
The British Foreign Secretary also said that his country does not support a large-scale operation in Rafah “unless there is a very clear plan to protect the population.”
Cameron stressed that London has not yet seen this plan, and therefore it will not support a large-scale operation in Rafah.
The Israeli army is currently attacking the eastern outskirts of the city of Rafah, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, including women and children. It has also forced many families to flee the area, and its forces have occupied the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt.
On the other hand, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet with British university leaders today, Thursday, in light of the expansion of student protests rejecting the war on Gaza and demanding a boycott of Israeli academic institutions and the companies that support them.
Sunak criticized this movement, and claimed – without evidence – that it involved anti-Semitism and harassment of Jews, repeating what officials and university presidents in the United States, from which the spark of the protests, said.
He said in a statement ahead of the meeting, “There is a loud factionalism in our universities that disrupts the lives and studies of fellow students, and in some cases spreads outright harassment and anti-Semitic abuse. This must stop.”
Source : Tel Aviv Tribune + Reuters + British press