This will be the first official visit to any part of Israel by a member of the British Royal family since the Jewish state’s establishment in 1948 and which is due to take place next week. It is, of course, a distinctly odd choice of timing considering the current attitude of non-cooperation by the Netanyahu government towards any peace settlement that allows the return of stolen land to Palestinian refugees.
Perversely, the Conservative government of Theresa May seems determined to continue to increase Britain’s military reliance on the state of Israel despite the obvious danger to the NATO alliance by compromising UK national security with military equipment from a non-member state.
Israel currently has a massive trade surplus of $3.33bn with Britain by its exports to the UK that include military drones and guided missiles, which trade poses a direct threat to British national security by an undeclared nuclear state that is neither a party to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) nor subject to inspection by the IAEA.
One solution would appear to be a European-wide boycott of the importation of Israeli military equipment and services together with an urgent review by the May government on the issue of British export licences of military parts and equipment to the IDF.
If this royal visit to the Occupied Territories is to be of any value, it must draw global attention to the continued blockade of essential goods and services for the 1.8 million civilian population of Gaza by the Israeli Right-wing, extremist Likud regime of Binyamin Netanyahu that has caused so much loss of life and hardship for the indigenous Muslim Arab population.
The British royal family is held in high esteem in most parts of the world and its public condemnation of human rights abuse by the Israeli government could only be of benefit to those millions still persecuted by this neo-colonialist, Right-wing administration.
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Hans Stehling (pen name) is an analyst based in the UK. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
