Defence secretary says Israel arms export move shows Labour ‘commitment to rule of law’

Defence secretary John Healey has defended the government’s decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel saying: “We had a commitment to follow the rule of law.”

Asked about the timing of Monday’s announcement, which clashed with the funerals in Jerusalem of hostages killed by Hamas, the Labour minister accepted “no day is a good day” to make any announcement in the midst of a “bloody war”.

Healey also revealed that he had relayed the news in advance of Monday’s statement in the Commons to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, who “found the call unwelcome”.

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“That’s not surprising, but sometimes your closest friends are the ones that need to tell the hardest truths,” added the Labour minister.

Speaking to Times Radio, Healey said:”“As I said to the defence minister Yoav Gallant yesterday when I spoke to him before the announcement, we have a duty to follow the law, but this does not alter our unshakable commitment to support Israel’s right to self-defence and to the defence of Israel if it comes under direct attack again, just as UK jets back in April helped intercept Iranian drones and missiles that were targeted directly at Israeli civilians.”

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He added: “It will not have a material impact on Israel’s security.”

Speaking again on Radio 4’s Today programme Healey was asked about a claim by Boris Johnson that the 30 arms licence suspensions showed that Keir Starmer and David Lammy were “abandoning Israel”.

He said:”This is not a decision about pleasing any side in this. ”

Healey also defended the timing of Monday’s announcement, which clashed with funerals of hostages killed by Hamas.

He said:”We are in the middle of a bloody, brutal conflict. No day is a good day, and yesterday was agonising even for us, seeing the people, the pictures of those vibrant people on the front of newspapers that have been brutally murdered by Hamas.”

Meanwhile, former British diplomat and national security adviser Lord Peter Ricketts said the government’s decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel was made to protect the “integrity” of the UK’s arms export system.

Lord Ricketts told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “They’ve been very careful, I think.

“They’ve gone into this thoroughly, and they’ve concluded that although they can’t pin individual weapons systems to individual acts in Gaza – because there aren’t the number of observers on the ground to see it – they’ve reached a conclusion that there are certain weapons where there is a clear risk that if they were supplied, they would be used in a way that breaches international humanitarian law.”

Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, criticised the Government’s decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel as sending a “terrible message” in the country’s “hour of need”.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “On the day that those beautiful people were being buried, kidnapped from a music festival like Reading or Glastonbury, the UK decides to send a signal that it’s Israel that it wants to penalise, and that is a terrible, terrible message to be sending both to Israel in its hour of need, also to Hamas about the consequences – where consequences are for the horrific actions that Hamas has taken as a terrorist organisation, but also to other allies and adversaries around the world.

“So it is the wrong decision taken very much at the wrong time.”