The weapons sale suspension was neither just nor justified. It’s high time to repair our relationship with an ally critical to our security – and potentially even more vital in missile defence
November 20, 2025 13:22
Last week, Germany announced that it will resume arms exports to Israel, which it suspended in August. I have written to the Prime Minister asking him to do likewise.
Many of us rightly opposed the government’s decision in September 2024 to suspend some arms export licences to Israel. Having visited both Israel and Gaza during the conflict, I never shared the view of former Foreign Secretary David Lammy that there existed a clear risk that UK arms might be used by Israel “to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.
Nor did the British senior former military officers who joined an ELNET delegation in the very month the suspension was announced. As one of their number, General Sir John McColl, the former deputy supreme allied commander of Nato, later wrote, the IDF procedures designed to protect civilian life were “at least as rigorous as those applied in the UK armed forces”.
But this is not about relitigating the past; it is about ensuring we do the right thing for the future – both for Britain and for our ally, Israel.
First, it’s clear, as Germany acknowledged, that there’s been a material change to circumstances on the ground. When Lammy announced the arms export ban, he was explicit that the “suspension only covers items which might be used in the current conflict” and that “the government will keep our position under review”. The suspension was thus specifically linked and time-limited to a conflict which ended with the ceasefire which came into effect on October 10.
Second, the terms of the ceasefire, which were based on President Trump’s 20 point plan, required the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas following the October 7 pogrom, the demilitarisation of Gaza and disarmament of Hamas, an increased flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and a staged withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza.
Israel has scrupulously kept to its side of the bargain. This is unsurprising: not simply because the Jewish state is a democracy which shares our values, but also because its war aims were always clear and always limited: to secure the release of the hostages and end the threat posed to its citizens by a terror group which perpetrated the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Equally unsurprising is the behaviour of Hamas. It didn’t release all the hostages within 72 hours of Israel agreeing to the ceasefire – and, indeed, continues to hold three of those it seized on October 7. It has repeatedly shown it has no intention of disarming (a demand enshrined in the UN Security Council resolution passed last week) – and it is reportedly amassing advanced weapons and stockpiling them abroad in the hope of smuggling them into Gaza in the future. And, through brutal public killings, it has sought to re-establish its authoritarian rule in those parts of Gaza from which Israel has withdrawn.
All of Hamas’ actions defy the expressed – and entirely correct – position of the British government: that the hostages be released, Hamas disarms, and the terror group plays no part in the future governance of Gaza and a future Palestinian state.
These actions also confirm something we have all long known: that Hamas has no intention of abandoning its founding genocidal goals: to murder Jews and destroy the State of Israel.
Given all this, it would be both deeply unfair and utterly perverse for Britain to continue to punish Israel and treat it as a potential pariah which might break international humanitarian law.
Finally, we urgently need to repair and strengthen the strategic partnership between Britain and Israel – a partnership which, uniquely among the UK’s allies in the Middle East, is underpinned by our shared commitment to liberal democratic values.
Many of those calling for a ban on arms sales to Israel ignored the inconvenient truth that it is the third-largest supplier of arms to the UK. Those arms, moreover, undoubtedly saved the lives of British military personnel serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The defence and security partnership between our two countries is also much wider and deeper than the issue of arms sales. Britain and Israel share intelligence – intelligence which, for instance, helped uncover a Hezbollah bomb factory in London in 2015 and which continues to help keep our streets safe.
Crucially, Britain and Israel both recognise the massive threat posed by Iran’s support for terror groups and its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes. That threat is a clear and present danger to Britain and our European allies. As the director-general of MI5 noted last month, the more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots uncovered by the security services in the UK are just one element of a “wave of Iranian transnational aggression”. The brave people of Ukraine are well aware of that: while Israel provides them with Patriot air defence batteries, Tehran is sending the UAVs and missiles to Moscow which Putin is using to terrorise them.
The government is rightly taking strong action to counter the Iranian threat: bringing forward legislation to proscribe the IRGC, introducing a new foreign influence registration scheme, and, with Germany and France, reimposing UN sanctions through the “snapback” mechanism.
But the threat posed by the Moscow-Tehran axis surely demands we bolster and broaden the defence and security partnership between Britain and Israel.
Once again, it is Germany – which is purchasing the Arrow 3 air defence system from Israel – which is leading the way. On this, as on arms exports, our government would be wise to follow suit.
Joan Ryan, a former Labour MP, is the CEO of ELNET UK
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