-Caveat Lector-
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 14, 2007 7:21:05 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: UK Banning Weapons Exports to Israel
UK blocks Israel arms deals
GEORGE CONGER Jerusalem Post correspondent, THE JERUSALEM POST
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1186557440717&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Aug. 14, 2007
The British government has blocked almost one third of British
military exports to Israel this year, citing possible threats to
regional stability and fears the equipment might facilitate human
rights violations.
According to official figures, the value of UK military sales arms
to Israel declined by one third last year, and has fallen by a
drastic 75 percent since 2005.
"There is evidence that the British government's export control
policy to Israel may have been tightened up," said Parliament's new
2007 Strategic Export Controls report, issued by the Quadrapartite
Commission, which comprises representatives from four ministries.
The change in policy, said the report, reflects a convergence of
government attitudes with its own official guidelines.
The report comes amid a period of uncertainty in Anglo-Israeli
relations.
While the new prime minister, Gordon Brown, has voiced public
support for Israel and has appointed several pro-Israel MPs to
cabinet positions, he has also promoted a leading critic of US and
Israeli policy, former UN deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch
Brown, to a key Foreign Office post.
Outside of government, the opposition Liberal Democrat party has
called for a rethinking of arms sales to Israel, while in May the
UK's Legal Services Commission, the state agency that provides
funding for attorney's fees for indigent defendants, agreed to
underwrite the costs of litigation brought by a Palestinian man in
a British court seeking a ban on arms sales to Israel.
The August 7 Quadripartite Committee report largely praised the
government's overall handling of strategic exports but warned that
the rapid pace of technological change and rising threat of
terrorism required increased state vigilance.
"Any gaps in the legislation could have serious consequences for
the UK," it concluded.
However, it criticized as "unclear" the British government's
policies on arms sales to Israel.
While the "case-by-case" approach gave the government a
"flexibility" that allowed a "latitude to adjust policy without the
need for public explanation," its arms sales policies towards
Israel were "neither transparent nor accountable," the panel found.
The committee asked that "the government explain its policy on
licensing exports to Israel, Jordan or other countries in the
Middle East and that it explain whether it has adjusted its policy
since 1997 as events in the Occupied Territories and Middle East
have unfolded."
"We further recommend that the government explain how it assesses
whether there is a clear risk‚ that a proposed export to Israel
might be used for internal repression," it said.
Statistics published by the committee showed that arms exports to
Israel totaled 14.5 million pounds last year (about $29 million),
compared to GBP 22.5 million in 2005. Between 1997 and 2006 Britain
granted Israel 1561 Standard Individual Export Licenses (SIELs)
valued at GBP 113 million. During the same period it authorized 626
SIELs valued at GBP 136.5 million for shipment to Jordan.
However, over the last 10 years, 190 application for military sales
to Israel have been prohibited, comprising 11 percent of all
applications for sales of military equipment. During the same
period, only two such applications were rejected for military and
restricted goods bound for Jordan.
The British government reported it had approved 37 military SIELs
to Israel in the first quarter of 2007 valued at GBP 1.5 million, a
rate that if held constant throughout the year would cut British
sales to Israel by three quarters since 2005.
The UK also blocked 11 SIELs to Israel in the first three months of
2007: three for airborne guidance systems, four for information
security systems and equipment, one for munitions, one for fire
control equipment, one for electronic components, and one for
specialty aluminum alloys.
Three SIELs for the sale of radar and avionics guidance systems to
a third country for use in aircraft destined for the IAF were
blocked this year also.
The 14 rejected SIELs violated various "Consolidated EU and
National Arms Licensing Criteria," the Foreign Office stated,
citing concerns the shipments would not respect "human rights and
the fundamental freedoms in the country of final destination,"
would worsen the "the internal situation in the country of final
destination;" and would harm "regional peace, security and stability."
One SIEL was denied due to the "behavior of the buyer country with
regard to the international community; in particular its attitude
to terrorism, the nature of its alliances and respect for
international law," while concerns the equipment would be
"diverted" for non-approved uses or "re-exported under undesirable
conditions" were cited in rejecting three SIELs.
The Foreign Office said in its annual human rights report to
Parliament that "progress on improving the human rights situation"
in Israel and the territories had been "limited."
Testifying before the committee on March 15, foreign secretary
Margaret Beckett stated that the Foreign Office kept a "close eye"
on the uses made by the IDF of British military equipment.
The then-foreign secretary said: "If we discovered that equipment
had been sold to Israel and was being used contrary to agreed
terms, we would regard that with grave concern and we would make
sure we did not issue licenses for such equipment in the future."
Beckett said at the time that Britain's total arms sales to Israel
were slight. "I believe something like 0.1% of Israel's total arms
imports comes from the United Kingdom, and we have not sold main
equipment like tanks or artillery or warships to Israel since
1997," she said, noting the Blair government had "visibly
conformed" to EU guidelines not to sell equipment that might harm
regional peace, security and stability in the Middle East.
During last year's Second Lebanon War, the leader of the opposition
Liberal Democrat party urged the government to review its arms
sales to Israel.
Sir Menzies Campbell said the government "must now comply with its
own arms export rules and institute an immediate suspension of all
UK arms exports to Israel."
Pressure is also being exerted through the courts to end arms sales
to Israel.
Last November, Public Interest Lawyers, in cooperation with the
Palestinian rights group, al-Haq, filed suit against the British
government on behalf of Saleh Hasan of Bethlehem. Hasan claimed the
sale of military goods to Israel violated British export guidelines
and contributed to his "oppression" as a Palestinian by Israel.
Phil Shiner, head of Public Interest Lawyers, stated the crux of
their case was whether the British government had met its own
criteria about what it can and cannot do in terms of arms exports
where there is a risk of internal repression in another country.
In May, a spokesman for the Legal Services Commission said Hasan's
lawsuit was receiving legal aid as a test case.
"The fact that applicants may live abroad is not a factor under the
legal aid scheme," he told The Times. "The key is whether the case
involves issues of English law and will be tried in this
jurisdiction."
The case is scheduled for a court hearing in October.
Copyright 1995-2007 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
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