Weapons made near my home are helping to kill people in Gaza

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Weapons made near my home are helping to kill people in Gaza

Natasaleoni-peacecamp10.jpg

British voters want to stop sending arms to Israel. So why are our weak politicians not listening to them? Amy Hall asks the question.

In April 2024, Britain’s foreign secretary David Cameron said that the UK will not stop arms exports to Israel. But most British voters want exports to stop and Israelis killed seven aid workers including three British workers.

Cameron’s said arms exports will not stop as the number of people killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023 reached over 33,200. So Britain’s support for arming the violence of Israel and its occupation of Palestine continues. The Campaign Against the Arms Trade says Britain agreed to around $556 million of arms to Israel between 2015 and 2022.

Cameron can only say to us in Britian that the government are worried about the problems with sending aid to Gaza. But the government’s worries do not seem to be serious enough to worry Britain’s arms industry and its part in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The industry is continuing to make weapons in my city, Brighton.

‘No bombs from Brighton’

Only a few kilometres from my home in Brighton & Hove, on the South Coast of England, local people started a protest camp near to an arms factory. L3Harris makes bomb parts for F35 and F16 fighter jet aeroplanes, used by government armies including the Israeli Defence Forces.

Since 15 March 2024, the protest camp – the Brighton Peace Camp - has welcomed visitors. For example, they organise storytelling for children and workshops on topics from local antifascist history to Dabke, a Palestinian folk dance. The camp also organised an Iftar/Shabbat meal with the help of Brighton and Hove Jews Against the Occupation.

Natasaleoni-peacecamp-0809.jpg Local people are still protesting against L3 Harris after many years. Photo: Natasa Leoni

‘We need to do everything we can to stop the genocide in Gaza,’ said Sarah, from the group Brighton Against the Arms Trade. ‘We need to see where they make the weapons and stop the production and supplies. L3Harris in Brighton is a big part of that. ‘We want to see a change to the development of renewable energy. It must and can start now. Production at the factory must stop immediately.’

Local people are still protesting against L3 Harris after many years. The company is now trying to build an extension to its factory that was built in 2018. But thanks to strong opposition from local people, including some members of Parliament and city councillors, Brighton & Hove City Council is under pressure not to give L3 Harris planning permission. There are nearly 650 objections to the plan.

StopL3Harris, the local protest against the arms factory, is asking people to ask their political representatives to refuse the planning permission. The planning permission was ready to take to Brighton & Hove City Council in March but there was a delay as the Council gets legal advice. Two out three of the city’s MPs: the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas and Labour’s Lloyd Russell-Moyle sent objections. The third MP, Labour representative Peter Kyle, did not.

NatasaLeoni-PeaceCamp-0031.jpg Since 15 March 2024, the protest camp – the Brighton Peace Camp - has welcomed visitors. For example, they organise storytelling for children and workshops on topics from local antifascist history to Dabke, a Palestinian folk dance. The camp also organised an Iftar/Shabbat meal with the help of Brighton and Hove Jews Against the Occupation. Photo: Natasa Leoni

Brighton is not the only British city making arms. The Campaign Against the Arms Trade says that British industry makes 15 per cent of every F35 combat aircraft that Israel uses in its war on Gaza. The protest listed the UK companies involved in making parts for the F35 aircraft and says that the value of Britain’s supplies is at least $422 million since 2016.

We can stop exports to Israel

Some countries have already stopped sending arms to Israel. Marnie lives in Brighton & Hove and she is helping at the Peace Camp. Marnie says, ‘Denmark and Canada have decided to stop selling arms to Israel – so why not the UK?’

In February 2024, a court in the Netherlands ordered the Dutch government to stop arms exports to Israel as part of the F35 programme. It said that sending the arms is against the EU Common Rules for Arms Exports and the UN Arms Trade Treaty.

The UN welcomed the decision and called for arms exports to Israel to ‘stop immediately’ because sending weapons or ammunition to use in Gaza is likely to be against international humanitarian law.

More than 600 lawyers also told the British government that arms exports to Israel risk legal violations. A senior MP for the leading Conservative party said that the government has kept the advice from its own lawyers secret. The advice was that Israel is breaking international law.

Too many of our politicians don’t seem interested in international law and it seems they are not worried about the suffering of the Palestinian people. But people supporting a weapons ban continue to see in horror the videos of crying children carrying their dead sisters and brothers, pictures of thin children starved to death, and the killing of civilians and aid workers.

Cameron should be more than worried about the six children killed each day during the war in Gaza. Politicians serious about the humanitarian situation w ould demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire, an end to the blockade of the Gaza strip, and an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

Until then, as the money keeps flowing and the bombs keep dropping, we will continue to march, boycott, protest, give money, camp, and cry until Palestine is free.

NOW TRY THE ORIGINAL:

https://newint.org/arms/2024/weapons-made-my-doorstep-are-helping-kill-people-gaza

(This article is in easier English so it is possible that we changed the words, the text structure, and the quotes.)