The SNP has reiterated its call for an immediate suspension of arms sales to Israel in a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
The party also said the Government should take action now rather than wait for further reviews.
Mr Lammy has said there would be no “blanket ban” on arms sales between the UK and Israel, highlighting the Middle Eastern country is “surrounded by people who would see its annihilation”.
However he told the Commons he would consider any issues linked to offensive weapons being used in Gaza.
SNP MP Brendan O’Hara said he was “relieved” at the decision this week to reinstate funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine.
READ MORE: £2m in Scots public grants given to arms firms supplying Israel
His letter to the Foreign Secretary said: “This, however, is a bare minimum of the urgent action which you must take to protect innocent civilians in Gaza.
“The required decision which you must make cannot merely be to mitigate the impacts of Israel’s bombardment and collective punishment but must end the IDF’s ability to commit war crimes with impunity.
“In order to do so, there is one particular move which you must now make. You must suspend the arms licences to Israel immediately.”
Mr O’Hara said there have been nine months of reviews into Israel’s compliance with international law and there is no need to wait for another one.
The Foreign Secretary set out his thoughts on the issue on Friday, after a Labour MP tabled an amendment calling for the immediate suspension of export licences for arms transfers to Israel.
Mr Lammy said: “This is one of the toughest neighbourhoods in the world and Israel is a country surrounded by people who would see its annihilation.
“It is being attacked by the Houthis, missiles are being fired from Hezbollah, notwithstanding the desire for Hamas to wipe Israel off the map.
“For those reasons it would not be right to have a blanket ban between our country and Israel.
“What is right is for me to consider the issues in relation to offensive weapons in Gaza in the normal way following the quasi-judicial process that I’ve outlined.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel