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Labour MP Grahame Morris led demands yesterday for Britain to stop selling arms to Israel in the wake of its “criminal” assault on Gaza.
Mr Morris told Tory Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond that he can’t preach peace while allowing British firms to arm Israeli troops.
He said: “If we want to see an end to the horrific violence we need to close the gap between rhetoric and action.”
His call for an arms embargo came in a Westminster Hall debate called after more than 120,000 people signed an official petition calling on the government to “end the conflict in Palestine.”
It comes after the sale of £7 million worth of military equipment was signed-off by minister in the six months before the latest onslaught on Gaza.
Parts for combat aircraft, drones and weapon sights were all sold, government figures revealed last week showed.
Mr Morris said Britain should “play no part” in a slaughter that claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Palestinian civilians this summer.
“You don’t have to be an expert on international law to see that shooting tank shells at children sleeping inside UN shelters, launching missiles at small children playing at a beach in Gaza and bombing sick and injured patients lying in hospital are immoral and criminal acts,” he said.
Left Labour MPs, including John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn, also called for a ban on the sale of goods from settlements.
MPs heard how the number of goods bought by EU nations from settlements far exceeds the amount of goods sources from Palestine.
Mr Morris described the sales as a “gross injustice” that “sustain the barriers to peace and make illegal settlement enterprise profitable.”
Dozens of Tory MPs turned up to defend Israel, reading pre-prepared interventions provided in a briefing by Conservative Friends of Israel.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign spokeswoman Sarah Colborne told the Star: “I think it’s clear that the government is out of step with the public mood on this issue.
“Sustained pressure from the public and MPs will help to make ministers take action.”
