Former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has warned against any move to end weapon sale to Israel.
Israel’s war with Gaza entered its seventh month today (Sunday) and the former PM said banning arms sale to Israel would be “insane”.
Johnson went on to criticise the foreign secretary, David Cameron, for remaining silent on the debate over curtailing United Kingdom’s arms sale to Israel.
Recall that the Israeli Defense Forces, IDF, launched airstrikes which killed three British aid workers associated with the World Central Kitchen, WCK, on Monday.
This led MPs from all major political parties to call for the end of arms trading with Israel.
The same sentiment was expressed in a letter signed by more than 600 lawyers, including former supreme court justices.
However, Israel later said the strike was not deliberate, describing the attack on the aid convoy as a “grave mistake stemming from a serious failure”.
Israel officials have since dismissed two officers involved in the strikes.
Speaking with Daily Mail, Johnson, the former Prime minister described the attack as “shattering” but then defended Israel.
“If the west continues to crumble – and especially if Britain and the US crumble – then the Israelis will be prevented from getting into Rafah. They will be prevented from achieving their objective: of finishing Hamas as a military force in Gaza,” Johnson said.
“Is that really what you want, all you legal experts who say that Israel’s actions now necessitate an arms embargo?
“Do you want to hand victory to a bunch of murderers and rapists? We are being asked to shun the Israelis, to mount a total moral repudiation of Israel – when that country has only recently suffered the biggest and most horrifying massacre of Jewish people since world war two.”
Johnson added that if Hamas released its hostages, it would “mean the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Forces and the end of the conflict”.
Johnson concluded that banning arms sale to Israel would be “insane” and “shameful”.
“The sooner the government formally denounces the idea, the better,” he said.
Gaza war: ‘Shameful, insane’ – Boris Johnson kicks as UK debates against Israel