UK to review its weapons exports to the racist Israeli war criminal regime

UK to review its weapons exports to Israel

Wednesday April 22, 2009 11:28 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The government of the United Kingdom says they will review all of their weapons exports to Israel due to Israel’s excessive use of force during the war against the Gaza Strip. Israel embarked on the offensive against Gaza on December 27, 2008, and ended it with a unilateral ceasefire on January 18, 2009.

UK Foreign Minister, David Miliband, stated that the country is now reviewing all of its future military exports to Israel.

Several lawmakers have been pressuring the UK government to ensure that UK weapons are not being used by Israel to attack the Palestinian civilian population.

The main weapon supplier to Israel is the United States, while Britain’s military exports to Israel are less than 1%. Miliband said that in spite of this fact, UK military exports to Israel were “almost certainly” used by Israel during its offensive against Gaza.

Miliband also said that the military exports include radar navigation equipment used in Apache helicopters, displays used in the F-16 war aircraft, and parts for guns used in Israeli Saar-class warships.

He added that Apache parts, manufactured in the UK, are exported to the United States where they are finished and then transferred to Israel.

Furthermore, the British official said that some military components exported to Israel for surveillance satellites might have been used by Israel during the war. But he added that there was no evidence which would indicate that UK-made equipment was definitely used by Israel in the Gaza attack.

He said that the government also did not have clear evidence that U.K. components were used to build Merkava tanks or D9 armored bulldozers.

The Foreign Minister did not state whether U.K weapons weapon parts export to Israel would be banned, but said that the usage of such equipment would be taken into consideration.

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