Apsana Begum – We have a right to know how many Palestinians were slaughtered using UK weapons

“How much profit is being made from death, destruction & war crimes?”
Apsana Begum MP

This is the full text Apsana Begum MP had prepared for her intervention into the Westminster Hall Debate on arms sales to Israel this week,

Not only is Israel a major recipient of UK weapons, but UK weapons manufacturers are seeing enormous increases in stock prices.

For example, BAE Systems stocks increased by 11.7% between 7 October and 24 October. [1]

In addition to the value of official UK arms exports to Israel, commentators have noted a number of other forms of less public UK military assistance and that this includes broader trade, exploiting the “incorporation guidelines” loophole.

So why is this significant?

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health 18,825 Palestinians have been killed since the outbreak in October.

In fact, the real number is much higher.

Just to put this in perspective, Ukraine and Sudan are both widely understood to have unacceptable levels of civilian deaths across the International Community.

The levels of slaughter in these areas have been rightly condemned as horrendous and horrific.

On 21 November 2023, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said in a press release that since the Russian invasion of 24 February 2022 “at least 10,000 civilians, including more than 560 children” have been killed.[2]

The United Nations also reports that “more than 10,400 people have been killed” in Sudan since April 2023.[3]

These are disgracefully high levels of civilian deaths – and should be condemned outright.

I repeat that according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health 18,825 Palestinians have been killed since the outbreak in October.

Around 20,000 in around two months.

The vast majority of these are not combatants.

Israel is increasing its “acceptable collateral damage” threshold, so hundreds of civilian casualties are acceptable to eliminate a single target.

Of course, one of the simplest ways to explain this is that the death toll includes frightening numbers of children. Gaza, in the word of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, is a “graveyard for children.”[4]

Within weeks of the outbreak Save the Children highlighted that the number of children killed in Gaza has surpassed the annual number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones since 2019. [5]

Therefore, as we know there are widespread concerns that war crimes, crimes against humanity and breaches of international law are continuing to take place.

At the same time, we are told that the UK’s arms export system is based on the principle of avoiding a clear risk of British weapons being used to commit serious violations of international law.

Yet it is simply not credible that the UK believe that the siege, bombardments, and forcible transfer of civilians of Gaza are compliant with international law.

Or that killing thousands and thousands of innocent children in such a short amount of time is either proportionate, moral, nor legal.

The situation is Gaza is not the only example that brings to light unacceptable approaches to the arms trade by the UK.

In fact, the UK has been found to be repeatedly approving arms sales to countries that they themselves have even identified as being places of concern, including Saudi Arabia with regards to Yemen.

British arms exports doubled during 2022 to a record £8.5bn[6] with 54% going to countries designated as “not free” by the human rights group Freedom House.[7]

There are serious questions as to arms trade and human rights abuses globally and that some Governments spend more on military expenditure than on social development, communications infrastructure and health combined.

And so, we have a right to know how many Palestinians were slaughtered using UK made weapons [and to know] how many children were dispatched using UK traded armaments?

How many women slain by ammunition from the UK?

How many schools, hospitals and refugee camps have been annihilated with the help of UK engineering?

How much profit is being made from death, destruction, and war crimes?

And yes, what is this Government’s price tag for humanity?

Apsana Begum is the MP for Poplar and Limehouse and a regular contributor to Labour Outlook. You can follow Apsana on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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