On 9 September, the arms industry will gather in the UK for the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair. DSEI generates controversy and protest every year;  this year that controversy is focussed on links to Israel and its genocide of the Palestinian people. While the UK government has barred an official delegation from Israel, Israeli weapons companies will still attend. Now, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has argued this exception represents “peak complicity in genocide”, with 51 Israeli companies set to attend the event.

Contentious attendance at DSEI

CAAT note that the 51 Israeli companies set to attend the event include “Elbit Systems, Rafael and Israel Aerospace”. These companies are based in Israel, but they also maintain UK sites in some instances, particularly Elbit Systems. Before our current Labour government proscribed it as a terrorist organisation, Palestine Action conducted a protracted campaign of direct action against Elbit Systems, and several companies cut ties with the arms manufacturer during this period (including a landlord of one of its UK sites). Some speculated that Palestine Action may also have influenced the Ministry of Defence (MoD) overlooking Elbit for a £2.1bn contract.

Emily Apple (CAAT media coordinator) said the following about this year’s DSEI:

This government keeps insisting it is doing everything in its power to hold the Israeli government to account for its actions. This information shows this is an outrageous and offensive lie.

However it has reached peak complicity in genocide in allowing 51 Israeli arms companies to exhibit at DSEI. It is allowing companies to market their genocide tested weapons to human rights abusing countries around the world. The people who run these companies are war criminals. They should be investigated for crimes against humanity, not invited to profit from the unspeakable devastation they have caused in Gaza.

Regarding the phrase “genocide tested weapons”, Israeli weapons companies have historically sold their weapons based on them being ‘field tested’ or ‘battle tested’, with Middle East Monitor noting:

Rights groups have warned that Elbit Systems markets its munitions as “field tested” on Palestinian civilians, notably Gazans who are mostly children and refugees.

Apple also said:

These are the arms companies arming the IDF. These are the arms companies facilitating and profiting from Israel bombing hospitals, killing journalists and deliberately starving babies. These are not the actions of a government committed to taking action against Israel. These are the actions of a government deeply complicit in a genocide.

It is clear that our government will not do anything that disrupts the profits of arms dealers. It is therefore down to campaigners across the country coming together to take action to uphold international law on the streets of East London.

The Canary has covered the DSEI since its inception, and CAAT’s Emily Apple is a former Canary writer and editor.

“How the UK arms and supports Israel’s genocide”

CAAT have released an updated version of their report titled How the UK arms and supports Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Key points from the report include:

• The F-35 is almost certainly the single largest and most important part of the UK arms trade with Israel. This makes the UK directly complicit in Israel’s genocidal acts.
• The figures often given in the media, based on government data for the value of UK arms exports to Israel, are vastly understated, as most or all of the F-35 exports are excluded, as they are made via non-transparent ‘open licences’.
• In 2023, the F-35 “Open General Export Licence” (OGEL) was used to deliver equipment to Israel a total of 14 times, the most of any year since it was issued in 2016. (The next highest year was 5).
• The government claims that, apart from F-35 components that go via the US and through international pools of spare parts, it has suspended all licences for military goods to Israel for use by the Israeli military in Gaza. However they have refused to disclose which licences were suspended, rendering proper scrutiny of the government’s claim impossible.
• This government, like previous ones, frequently claims that the UK has one of the most robust arms export licensing systems in the world. The continued arming of Israel’s genocide in Gaza leaves this claim in tatters.

CAAT’s report also makes the following “key demands”:

• Implement a complete two-way arms embargo on Israel – no exports of arms to, or imports of arms from Israel, directly or indirectly, ending the F-35 exemption.
• As a minimum, severe restrictions on dual-use exports to Israel, banning all such exports that might directly or indirectly contribute to the activities of the Israeli arms industry.
• Sanctions on the Israeli arms industry, including a ban on investments, loans and financing of Israeli arms companies. Israeli arms companies with subsidiaries in the UK must be required to divest from these holdings.
• An end to all UK military cooperation with Israel, including training of Israeli military personnel, and spy flights by the RAF over Gaza from the UK military bases in Cyprus.

CAAT is one of over 130 groups supporting The Big One: Shut DSEI Down – a day of mass protest against DSEI on its opening day on 9 September.

Featured image via Campaign Against Arms Trade (Flickr)