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<div class="gmail-archive-name"> <a
href="https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/"
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<h1 class="gmail-single_title">Britain: From arms supplier to
accomplice in war crimes</h1>
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<h3>By <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/?p=251660"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Adnan Hmidan </a></h3>
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<p class="gmail-single_date">Tuesday 19-August-2025</p>
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<p>When we speak of the devastation in Gaza, the blame does
not rest solely on the generals and politicians of the
occupying power. The tragedy is sustained by the
international system that arms, trains and protects it. And
Britain, far from being a neutral observer, is among the
most significant enablers of this machinery of destruction.</p>
<p>For more than 22 months, the Gaza Strip has been subjected
not to war, but to genocide. Entire families have been wiped
out, refugee camps turned into mass graves, and civilian
infrastructure systematically destroyed. The International
Court of Justice has already confirmed that there is a
\u201cplausible risk of genocide\u201d \u2014 yet Western governments
continue to provide weapons, surveillance systems and
diplomatic cover.</p>
<p
class="gmail-has-vivid-cyan-blue-color gmail-has-text-color gmail-has-link-color gmail-wp-elements-bb9920f38c1753f63ee89861bcb549a9">Britain\u2019s
historic and present responsibility</p>
<p>Britain\u2019s complicity is not new. From the Balfour
Declaration in 1917, which laid the foundations for the
settler-colonial project, to today\u2019s arms shipments and
political protection, the United Kingdom has been central to
the dispossession of Palestinians. The government in London
cannot claim ignorance: under international law, providing
material support to a state committing war crimes or
genocide makes the supplier complicit in those crimes.</p>
<p>This is not about maintaining a \u201cstrategic ally.\u201d It is
about directly enabling bombardment, mass displacement and
collective punishment of two million besieged Palestinians.</p>
<p
class="gmail-has-vivid-cyan-blue-color gmail-has-text-color gmail-has-link-color gmail-wp-elements-a0f02a9b5344a317b13cdbb643d1a736">Evidence
of involvement</p>
<p>The evidence is clear and overwhelming:</p>
<p>Data from the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute (SIPRI) shows that the UK exported key components
for F-35 fighter jets \u2014 including radar and targeting
systems \u2014 worth over £17 million in 2023 alone.<br>
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) estimates that
British-made parts account for around 15 per cent of every
F-35 jet currently bombing Gaza.<br>
Even after the UK government announced in September 2024
that it was suspending 30 export licenses, human rights
groups documented new shipments, including more than 8,600
rounds of ammunition and 150,000 bullets in the following
months.<br>
Palestinian and international human rights organizations
brought a case before the UK High Court, arguing that such
exports breach international law. Yet in June 2025, the
court dismissed the case, claiming that arms licensing falls
outside judicial review \u2014 effectively granting the
government a free hand in supplying a military accused of
genocide.<br>
Such facts leave little room for ambiguity. Britain is not
merely arming a strategic partner; it is aiding and abetting
grave breaches of international humanitarian law.</p>
<p
class="gmail-has-vivid-cyan-blue-color gmail-has-text-color gmail-has-link-color gmail-wp-elements-13c121e6ed0a365c028cb4105b5187ec">Silencing
solidarity</p>
<p>The British government has also moved to suppress those who
expose this complicity. Campaign groups such as \u201cPal Action\u201d
have been targeted with bans, activists have been arrested,
and even banners confiscated. But repression cannot erase
reality. The blood of civilians testifies to the fact that
this is not a conflict between equals, but a massacre
sustained by Western capitals.</p>
<p
class="gmail-has-vivid-cyan-blue-color gmail-has-text-color gmail-has-link-color gmail-wp-elements-929329d675c302facef8d56d867daa55">A
moral and legal imperative</p>
<p>As Palestinians living in the UK, we speak not only with
the voice of memory and history, but also with the authority
of law and morality. International law is explicit: states
that knowingly provide weapons used in the commission of
genocide share responsibility for that crime. Silence,
therefore, is not neutrality. It is complicity.</p>
<p>Britain\u2019s record will be judged harshly. Just as the
Balfour Declaration is remembered as a colonial betrayal,
today\u2019s arms exports will be recorded as enabling one of the
most documented genocides of the modern era.</p>
<p
class="gmail-has-vivid-cyan-blue-color gmail-has-text-color gmail-has-link-color gmail-wp-elements-bbbaa04ed6fedf9551bc25d4ede85e73">The
call to conscience</p>
<p>Yet Britain is also home to countless free voices:
campaigners, lawyers, journalists and politicians who
understand that what is unfolding in Gaza is not distant,
but deeply tied to Britain\u2019s own decisions. They know that
complicity today will stain this country for decades to
come.</p>
<p>The choice before Britain is stark: continue to arm and
shield a regime accused of genocide, or align with
international law and the universal values it claims to
uphold.</p>
<p
class="gmail-has-vivid-cyan-blue-color gmail-has-text-color gmail-has-link-color gmail-wp-elements-13518c534844245d085c9901e52a5fdb">Until
justice prevails</p>
<p>Our struggle is not simply to lift a siege, but to end
decades of settler-colonialism and military occupation.
Freedom will not be gifted; it will be won. And as
Palestinians, in Gaza, across the diaspora, and here in
Britain, we carry the same message passed down from one
generation to the next: never accept injustice, and never
let the flag of freedom fall.</p>
<p><em>-Adnan Hmidan is a Presenter, Consultant & Trainer.
His article appeared in MEMO.</em></p>
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