Clementine Russell argues that Israel’s attempts to widen the war in the Middle East make ending arms sales crucial

The risk of a wider war in the Middle East is peaking after Israel’s series of air strikes in the last few days. The Labour government’s response to the new crisis has been frankly pitiful. On the evening of 30 July, the IDF carried out a strike on Beirut, Lebanon’s capital city. The strike was targeted on a Hezbollah commander. The following day, an Israeli strike on Iran’s capital killed Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. 

Just before the strikes began, UK foreign secretary David Lammy said in a statement that the government will ‘do all [they] can to prevent the outbreak of full-scale conflict.’ In the days leading up to the strikes, there were suggestions, confirmed by well-informed sources within the Labour Party, that the government was likely to introduce some restrictions on arms sales.

However, since the strikes, these restrictions seem to have been delayed. The Labour Party’s apparent decision to halt arms restrictions seems like a huge mistake given Israel’s escalation of conflict, particularly the expansion of strikes into Iran. 

Netanyahu’s attempts to justify these attacks under the guise of avenging the twelve children killed in the strike on the Druze town Majdal Shams, whose deaths he blames on Hezbollah, were extremely weak. In a statement, Hezbollah ‘affirm[ed] that it has no connection to the incident whatsoever and emphatically denies all false claims in this regard’, though Israel’s X account continues to blame the group. 

The deaths of the twelve children have been weaponised by Netanyahu, becoming the flawed justification for attacking other states as he attempts to mask his real motivations. Majdal Shams is located in the Israeli-occupied area of the Golan Heights. Though Israeli officials continue to refer to the area as Northern Israel, Israel’s sovereignty over the area is not recognised internationally, except by the US. Many of Majdal Shams’ population are Druze, an Abrahamic ethno-religion, and identify more as Syrian than as Israeli, though Israel has described those killed as Israelis. The Agence France-Presse reports that in a statement issued after Netanyahu visits the town, Druze religious leaders said that the community rejects the ‘attempt to exploit the name of Majdal Shams as a political platform at the expense of the blood of our children.’

Netanyahu’s true motivations appear to be to pull the US into a wider war, no doubt with UK support. Israel’s siege of Gaza has become increasingly unpopular, even at home, and his last chance is to spread the war. This makes the UK government’s lack of action particularly baffling.

As Netanyahu becomes desperate, now, more than ever, we need to stop arming Israel. Despite Lammy’s claims that the Labour Party is ‘mak[ing] sure [they’re] prepared for all scenarios’, we continue to send arms to Israel at the same rate, effectively encouraging Netanyahu.

As David Lammy himself says, ‘Tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate.’ The increasing risk of war in the Middle East, and Labour’s poor response to it makes the national Palestine demonstration on 3 August even more crucial. 

The mass movement for Palestine is already having an impact. Important developments such as the ICC and ICJ rulings highlight the difference we as individuals and as communities can bring about. Starmer has been forced to drop the opposition to the ICC’s issuing of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other key Israeli figures as well as to restore funding to UNRWA. Now we need to force him into a position of suspending all arms to Israel.