Retired British army generals urge Starmer's government to halt arms sales to Israel

LONDON

Four retired senior British army officers have urged the UK government to halt arms sales to Israel, calling for a full embargo and an end to all military collaboration amid the war in Gaza.

In a letter to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the former officers said that despite a fragile ceasefire, “now is not the time to return to business as usual with the Israeli government.”

They argued that sanctions should go further, including a ban on involvement with Israeli-owned or Israeli-supported defense companies, according to reports in the Times.

The signatories are retired Brig. John Deverell, who served for more than 30 years in the British army and was defense attache in Saudi Arabia and Yemen during the September 2001 attacks; Lt. Gen. Andrew Graham, former director general of the UK defense academy; Maj. Gen. Peter Currie; and Maj. Gen. Charlie Herbert, a former senior army commander in Afghanistan.

Their intervention comes as the British army prepares to decide next year whether to award Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of the Israeli defense company Elbit Systems, a £2 billion (about $2.70) training contract.

If approved, the deal would see Elbit train up to 60,000 British soldiers a year. Elbit provides around 85% of Israel’s drones and land-based military equipment.

The former officers rejected claims made by a senior Defense Ministry source that “Israel appears to have thorough and rigorous processes for the conduct of hostilities and targeting that in many respects resemble our own,” a statement cited in a legal case on UK arms exports to Israel last July.

They said British military practices differed clearly from those of the Israeli army, pointing to its use of indiscriminate munitions that had resulted in “exceptionally disproportionate and avoidable civilian fatalities and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.”

They highlighted warnings from more than 100 humanitarian organizations about famine caused by Israeli forces' actions in Gaza, as well as repeated attacks on hospitals, schools, and other sites essential for civilian survival. The letter also cited widespread reports of detainees being tortured in Israeli army custody.

The officers said evidence of war crimes has been “so well documented and compelling that the British government should cut all military collaboration with Israel forthwith to avoid the charge of complicity.”

They called for an end to Royal Air Force or British-contracted aircraft being used in any way to support the Israeli army and for a suspension of all military technology transfers.

The UK government has already announced that Israelis will be barred from enrolling at the Royal College of Defense Studies from next year, and ended spy flights over Gaza in October after conducting more than 500 missions since Dec. 2023.

The ministry said those flights were “tasked solely to locate hostages,” a claim disputed by pro-Palestine campaigners who say the intelligence could have aided Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza.

Israel launched a brutal war on Gaza in October 2023, with US backing, killing more than 71,000 Palestinians and wounding more than 171,000 others, most of them women and children.

A ceasefire based on a proposal advanced by Trump took effect on Oct. 10, but Israel has violated it daily, resulting in the death of 411 Palestinians.