Over 200 MPs from 12 countries urge arms ban on Israel

More than 200 parliament members from 12 countries have urged their governments to impose a ban on arms sales to Israel, citing the occupying regime’s “grave violation of international law” in its war on Gaza.

“We know that lethal weapons and their parts, made or shipped through our countries, currently aid the Israeli assault on Palestine that has claimed over 30,000 lives across Gaza and the West Bank,” they said in a letter, organized by Progressive International, a network of socialist lawmakers and activists focused on international justice.

The politicians stressed that an arms embargo has become “a legal requirement”, especially after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to ensure its forces don’t commit genocide.

“We cannot wait. Following the interim ruling by the international court of justice (ICJ) on the genocide convention case against … Israel, an arms embargo has moved beyond a moral necessity to become a legal requirement,” said the letter, The Guardian reported on Friday. 

In January, the ICJ issued an interim ruling on the emergency measures requested by South Africa in its genocide case against Israel, ordering the occupying regime to take all measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire.

South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel in December 2023 over its war on the Gaza Strip. According to South Africa’s application, Israel's actions in Gaza were "genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group."

The letter’s signatories are all lawmakers in parliaments where the governments allow arms sales to Israel, including nine current or former leaders of political parties.

Some 39 parliamentarians from the UK have signed the letter, in addition to politicians from Australia, France, Belgium, Canada, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey and the US.

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The action by the parliamentarians is backed by the founder of France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, the Spanish government minister Pablo Bustinduy and the Indian politician Jignesh Mevani.

The letter comes amid worldwide public anger over the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and mass protests calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Israel launched the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed 30,228 Palestinians and injured 71,377 others.

Last week, UN experts also warned that “any transfer of weapons or ammunition to Israel that would be used in Gaza is likely to violate international humanitarian law and must cease immediately.”

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