Katie Fallon writes:

For the last four years, my job has been to comb through government statements, along with policy and legal documents, and then brief members of parliament on exactly what linguistic and legal gymnastics the government of the day is using to justify exports of military equipment – despite evidence that these exports are likely to be used in war crimes.

At a certain point, I recognised these documents and legal arguments for what they really are: the bureaucracy of genocide.

While we might have seen a change in tone from senior UK ministers in recent weeks in relation to starvation and famine in Gaza, it has been accompanied by a deepening denial of British complicity, including through ongoing arms sales to Israel.

In a radio interview on LBC this summer, former Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “The UK is not supplying Israel with arms that can be used in Gaza.” Host Nick Ferrari then asked if the assertion made by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) – that the UK is still supplying components for the F-35 fighter bomber – was wrong. Lammy responded: “It’s wrong. It’s wrong. It’s wrong.”

As advocacy manager at CAAT, I can tell you with absolute certainty that we, our partners and our supporters, are not wrong. [Continue reading…]