Alicia Kearns: UK has 'no choice' but to stop Israeli weapon exports

Alicia Kearns, the chair of Foreign Affairs Select Committee at Westminster, also told the BBC that she did not buy Israel’s claim that it had “accidentally” killed seven aid workers in three separate air strikes.

“This is something that’s happening on a daily basis, in terms of the attacks on humanitarians,” she said.

Asked what the killings should mean for UK policy, Kearns said: "I believe we have no choice but to suspend arms sales.

READ MORE: Scotland has taken a stand on Israel. How many will die before the UK does?

“It is important that the public understands this is not a political decision as some people want to present it as.

“Legal advice is advisory so the Government can choose to reject it, but UK arms export licences require a recipient to comply with international humanitarian law.”

The senior Tory MP went on: “There are some seeking to capture and create a monopoly on what it means to be a friend of Israel, what it means to support Israel to defeat Hamas.

“A friend to Israel is someone who wants to see the people of Israel safe, prosperous and secure for the long term, not living under threat.

“But there are attempts to stipulate that a requirement for unadulterated loyalty to the [Benjamin] Netanyahu government is what looks like friendship.

“This is the most ultra-orthodox government of my lifetime and even former presidents of Israel such as president [Reuven] Rivlin are saying that Netanyahu is driving away and creating international ostracism.

“There is nothing anti-Israeli, much less antisemitic, in taking a tougher life than the Netanyahu government.”

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Netanyahu that future US support for Israel’s war on Gaza depends on the swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.

Netanyahu’s office has said “immediate steps” have been approved by the security cabinet to help aid reach Gaza, including the temporary opening of the Erez crossing at the northern end of the territory and allowing the use of the Israeli port of Ashdod for aid shipments.

Kearns said the phone call between Biden and Netanyahu could be a tipping point, adding: “It's devastating that it's taken six months for us to get to a point where it appears that the international community is able to influence Israel's perpetration of this war.”

Kearns also hit out at former home secretary Suella Braverman, calling her arguments “preposterous”.

Braverman, a far-right figure in the Tory Party, had said on a visit to Israel that the country is “absolutely not” in breach of international humanitarian law.

“I have seen evidence myself, in terms of very up-to-date photographic evidence, of plentiful food packages and trucks of food, water and medicines getting to the people of Gaza,” Braverman said.

More than 600 legal experts, including former supreme court president Brenda Hale, have said the UK Government risks breaching international law "including potential violations of the Genocide Convention" by continuing to allow the export of weapons to Israel.

And civil servants in the Trade Department have requested to stop work on the exports “immediately” amid fears they could be liable for aiding in war crimes perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.