On the 22nd Jan 2025 the annual arms fair came to Farnborough to buy and sell weapons. This was the 25th anniversary of this event which claims to have “gained a reputation as the world’s premier international meeting ground for all elements of the armoured community”. Whether this is something to brag about is up for debate. They also boast “46 Nations represented, 100 Speakers, 1000+ Attendees and 65 Industry partners on-site”. It is not a small event!
And Israel was very welcome to the event. There were many attendees from the Israeli military, Israeli private weapons manufacturing companies and those that proudly trade weapons with Israel.
The items on sale at this particular event were armoured vehicles. That includes tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, armoured bulldozers and self-propelled artillery.
The United Kingdom have provided the following armoured vehicles to Israel:
- MDT David: This vehicle is based on the Land Rover. In 2023, the David was documented in Israeli military raids in Tulkarm Refugee Camp and the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. Notably, Shireen Abu Akleh, the journalist for Al Jazeera, was shot in the head by a sniper from a David vehicle.
- Puma (Heavy Combat Engineering vehicle), Nagmapop (Command & Surveillance vehicle), Nagmachon (Heavy armoured personnel carrier), Nakpadon (Heavy armoured personnel carrier), Nakpuma (Heavy Combat Engineer vehicle/Heavy armoured personnel carrier), and more.
This event was a chance for Israel to trade and build further connections with arms companies, a significant financial opportunity for those without morals. In 2022, arms sales from the UK to Israel totalled £42 million, and in 2023 it was £18 million.
We, as the North Hampshire PSC, and as locals in Farnborough and the surrounding area, don’t want to have Israel trading in our town. We know the harm Israel can achieve with the weapons they purchase every year at this event. For example, Israel have purposely run over dozens of fleeing civilians with tanks and even tortured detainees by running them over with tanks. Since the IAVC, Israel has begun an invasion with tanks in the West Bank.
In the year leading up to this event:
- Israel murdered 200+ journalists, labelling them and “terrorists” and “targets”.
- The numbers in Gaza stand at:
- Killed: at least 61,709 people, including 17,492 children
- Injured: more than 111,588 people
- Missing and presumed dead: more than 14,222
- Israeli attacks damaged almost all of Gaza’s homes, 88% of school buildings, 50% of healthcare facilities, 68% of road and 68% of cropland.
- Israel said it bombed 40,000 locations in the Gaza Strip (which is 360 km2). By one estimate, the bomb tonnage dropped on Gaza is more than 70,000 tonnes.
Our Government did not respond appropriately. In the year leading up to this event:
- A shameful 16 of 268 UK export licences to Israel were suspended.
- Zarah Sultana (Labour MP) formally submitted the Arms Trade (Inquiry and Suspension) Bill. The bill would require the Business and Trade Secretary to immediately suspend the sale of arms to foreign states where it cannot be demonstrated that arms sold will not be used in violation of international law. No progress has been made on this bill since its introduction in May 2024.
- Hamish Falconer (Labour MP, the Minister for the Middle East) expressly the Government’s ban on export licenses will not include “F-35 components” to be used in the West Bank and Lebanon, only Gaza. The F-35, or the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a supersonic stealth strike combat aircraft created by Lockheed Martin and BAE systems and has been labeled the “most lethal fighter jet in the world”. It has been used by the Israeli Air Force in:
- Al-Hudayah, Yemen, three months before Falconer made that statement, in an attack where 14 civilians were killed.
- Beirut, Lebanon, dropping 2 missiles one months before the statement, killing 14 people. The third Israeli airstrike in Lebanon that year.
- Gaza, Palestine, two months after Falconer claimed they were going to stop! The loophole found was shipping to the USA and then forwarding on to Israel!
- The F-35 jet is the aircraft that dropped a 2000lb bomb on a so-called ‘safe zone’ in Khan Yunis the same day the Government decided to end these particular export licenses, killing 72 people in one day.
- One month later another airstrike (bomb dropped by an Israeli F-35 jet) in Deir al-Balah killed 24 people. Nine days later an airstrike killed 19 people.
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The legal implications:
- Amnesty International documented unlawful Israeli attacks, including indiscriminate attacks, which caused mass civilian casualties and called for Israel to be investigated for war crimes. They concluded that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
- The UK government was taken to court by Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network for the “F-35 Carve Out”, in which the government will not suspend its sales of F-35 parts to Israel.
- At the International Court of Justice, South Africa accused Israel of international humanitarian law violations in its military operations in Gaza.
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In the face of this atrocity we need to do more. On the day of the action we lined the streets entering the Exhibition Centre with signs calling out the Israeli delegates for their war crimes and all the other attendees for their complicity. But it made no difference. The conference continued as if we weren’t there.
We garnered 600+ signatures on a petition to end this event and it was ignored by the CEO of the Exhibition Centre as well as Alex Baker (our local MP). The local council did nothing.
We asked our followers to reach out using our email templates to warn their local MP about the event and to speak up in Parliament. Every mention in the Commons by MPs had been batted down by the government as they constantly claim they are “urging Israel to uphold international law” knowing full well they are not!
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What can be done from here?
We must keep the pressure on the government. That means sending more emails to MPs and councils, signing more petitions, turning up at demonstrations.
This is not the only arms fair in Farnborough. Next month the DPRTE will be here selling more death. We hope to see you standing in solidarity with us ❤
northhampshirepsc.com 