Britain has a new Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary.
We need to send a clear message: this Government must act NOW to end Israel's atrocities against Palestinians.
Now is our chance to build pressure from day one and make sure this Government doesn't repeat the failures of the last.
Add your name to demand action for Palestinian health and dignity.
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We're calling on the UK Government to:
Suspend all arms transfers to Israel, including parts for F-35 fighter jets
Israeli military attacks have included widespread and deliberate targeting of Gaza’s healthcare system. Hospitals, ambulances, medical staff and even patients have come under fire. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, medical facilities and personnel must be protected at all times.
Yet, since October 2023, Gaza’s health system has been under intense siege, with repeated bombardments, forced evacuations, and blockades of medical supplies – now Gaza’s healthcare system has been systematically destroyed and will take years and billions of dollars to rebuild according to the WHO.
An independent UN Commission of Inquiry has made several findings of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel, including most recently concluding that Israeli forces and authorities have continued to commit genocide and atrocity crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the West Bank.
States are under obligation to cease the transfer of arms and other equipment where there is reason to suspect their use in the commission of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity or other serious violations of international law.
While the previous UK Government took limited steps to restrict arms exports, critical loopholes remain - including the continued export of F-35 components - leaving the UK complicit in the devastation Israel’s military assault has inflicted. The UK must immediately suspend all arms transfers to Israel, including the provision of parts for F-35 fighter jets, which have been used in airstrikes across Gaza.
Ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements
Illegal Israeli settlements are maintained through a physical infrastructure of restricted roads, permanent and flying checkpoints, military bases and closed military areas, and other restrictions which facilitate free movement of settlers around the West Bank and across the Green Line - while severely curtailing Palestinian movement.
Every day, MAP's mobile clinics reach communities cut off from healthcare by settlements and associated movement restrictions, which deny them access to services.
The coercive environment that facilitates the presence of the settlements also includes pervasive violence from Israeli forces and settlers, which presents direct threats to Palestinians’ physical and mental health in the West Bank.
Though the previous Government took necessary steps to sanction individual settlers and settler organisations, these measures have barely moved the dial on ending Israel’s annexation and apartheid in the West Bank and fall far short of meeting the Government’s obligations to uphold international law and end Israel’s impunity.
The UK must take meaningful action in line with its obligations outlined in the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion to ban all trade, financial services, and investment that enable Israel’s illegal settlements.
Suspend the UK-Israel trade agreement until all violations have ended
Israel’s illegal settlements do not occur in a vacuum, but rather as one part of a state-backed strategy to entrench Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land.
In this context, banning trade with illegal settlements is critical – but not enough to meet the UK’s obligations in full.
Israel’s illegal occupation and annexation is characterised by manifold violations of international law across the occupied Palestinian territory which deny Palestinians rights to health, dignity and self-determination.
These include:
- Targeting of civilians
- Pervasive attacks on healthcare
- Restrictions on free movement
- Discriminatory policies that violate the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid
While the UK has taken the necessary step of suspending negotiations on future trade agreements, the existing UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement continues to provide preferential trade treatment to a state “whose conduct has been found by multiple international bodies as amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.”
In line with its international legal obligations, the UK Government must therefore suspend the existing UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement until widespread violations of international law are brought to an end.
Take all legal, economic, and diplomatic measures to hold perpetrators accountable
If the UK Government is committed to protecting the health and human rights of Palestinians, it must go beyond condemnation of the horrors that Israel has inflicted.
It must now take meaningful action to enable independent international investigations into violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity - and ensure meaningful accountability for those responsible of facilitating these.
International law is not selective: the UK must act to ensure an end to Israel’s decades-long impunity or risk entrenching double standards that not only fail Palestinians, but undermine the very foundations of the international rules-based order.
