The business and trade secretary, Kemi Badenoch, on 18 December concurred with Lord Cameron’s recommendation that Israel was not in breach of international humanitarian law (IHL) and the arms exports could continue.
The Italian foreign minister at the weekend confirmed Italy blocked all arms exports to Israel as soon as the attacks in Gaza started.
The Foreign Office’s internal discussions were revealed in a business department court affidavit including partial extracts from aspects of Foreign Office official papers sent to ministers, which were presented to the high court in a claim for a judicial review about the continuance of arms sales that has been lodged by Global Legal Action Network, an NGO.
The Foreign Office papers said: “Given the paucity of information, the scale and intensity of the conflict, the death toll, the unusual civilian population density coupled with their inability to evacuate and the concomitance mounting effects of the conflict on civilians, [the government’s] current inability to come to a clear assessment on Israel’s record of compliance with IHL poses significant policy risks.”
The Foreign Office then sought and received written assurances from the Israeli embassy, but still wrote to Cameron on 8 December saying it was for him to decide if there was a commitment to comply with IHL.
On 12 December, the court document says Cameron “decided that he was satisfied that there was good evidence to support a judgment that Israel is committed to comply with IHL.
The original article contains 802 words, the summary contains 241 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The business and trade secretary, Kemi Badenoch, on 18 December concurred with Lord Cameron’s recommendation that Israel was not in breach of international humanitarian law (IHL) and the arms exports could continue.
The Italian foreign minister at the weekend confirmed Italy blocked all arms exports to Israel as soon as the attacks in Gaza started.
The Foreign Office’s internal discussions were revealed in a business department court affidavit including partial extracts from aspects of Foreign Office official papers sent to ministers, which were presented to the high court in a claim for a judicial review about the continuance of arms sales that has been lodged by Global Legal Action Network, an NGO.
The Foreign Office papers said: “Given the paucity of information, the scale and intensity of the conflict, the death toll, the unusual civilian population density coupled with their inability to evacuate and the concomitance mounting effects of the conflict on civilians, [the government’s] current inability to come to a clear assessment on Israel’s record of compliance with IHL poses significant policy risks.”
The Foreign Office then sought and received written assurances from the Israeli embassy, but still wrote to Cameron on 8 December saying it was for him to decide if there was a commitment to comply with IHL.
On 12 December, the court document says Cameron “decided that he was satisfied that there was good evidence to support a judgment that Israel is committed to comply with IHL.
The original article contains 802 words, the summary contains 241 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!