Sale Of F-16 Fighter Aircraft To Israel

EDM number 1630 in 2001-02, proposed by John Austin on 15/07/2002.

That this House expresses its deep concern regarding the Government's recent change in the rules for obtaining export licences that allows British components for F-16 fighter jets to be sold to Israel via the United States of America; believes that this is a reversal of the position taken by Her Majesty's Government in November 2000 not to sell arms to Israel that could be used in the Occupied Territories; believes that this change contravenes the spirit of the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports (May 1998) by which the Government is bound; further notes that Israeli F-16 fighter aircraft have been used to bomb Palestinian civilian areas in breach of the Fourth Geneva Conventions and are involved on an almost daily basis in illegal activities in sovereign Lebanese airspace; and demands that the Government revoke its decision and ensure that the United Kingdom does not damage its declared neutral position in the conflict by aiding the current cycle of violence through the supply of arms that could be used to perpetrate further violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

This motion has been signed by a total of 81 MPs.