Tag: Israel

The British military has used or threatened to use military force much more in the postwar world than is conventionally remembered or believed. Declassified has documented 83 interventions by the UK armed forces since 1945, in 47 different countries. The most striking of the British uses of force have been the overt invasions or armed […]

“I had my first speech outside Number 10 as prime minister all planned out,” Jeremy Corbyn tells me. “I was going to announce homelessness in Britain ends now, next week no-one will be sleeping rough.”  He is sitting on a sofa at the offices of his Peace & Justice Project in Finsbury Park, deep in […]

Whilst a storm was brewing in the spring of 2020, a dozen activists met in a rural village in England to plan the launch of Palestine Action. It seemed like a sign that the river close by burst its banks and threatened to flood our meeting place. Many of us already felt engulfed by a […]

“They hacked us to silence us,” shouts a man on a megaphone outside Kensington Olympia station in west London, where a giant inflatable effigy of a Gulf tyrant flutters in the autumn breeze.  Dressed in a white robe, chequered red head scarf and Stella McCartney sunglasses, Saudi dissident Yahya Assiri is protesting against a controversial […]

Britain today is a secondary actor in the international arena and its ability to influence the so-called peace process in Israel and Palestine is limited. It cannot be considered a significant contributor to efforts to find a solution to Israel’s continued colonisation and occupation of Palestine.  Yet Britain bears massive historical responsibility for the situation […]

“Controversial depends on your point of view, really. There are plenty of high-level political viewpoints that would say that it’s not.” Major General Roddy Porter has just bought us a coffee and is telling us why the world’s largest arms fair – being held in the heart of London – isn’t controversial, despite being opposed […]

Britain exported over £11-billion worth of arms around the world in 2019 but UK ministers claim this trade is properly administered in a mantra that goes like this: “HM Government takes its export control responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world. We consider all export […]

Britain’s Middle East minister James Cleverly is regularly refusing to provide answers to written questions posed to him by members of parliament, especially on UK arms exports to Israel, contravening House of Commons rules.

The recently published diaries of former foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan provide an unprecedented window into the influence the Israeli government and affiliated pro-Israel lobby groups have over the UK Foreign Office.

While the UK government has been backing Israel’s intense bombing campaign in Gaza, Declassified can reveal that a third of cabinet ministers and the foreign minister responsible for the Middle East, have been courted by the Israeli government or pro-Israel lobby groups.

British aid projects supporting Palestinian security forces appear to be as much about helping to stop threats to Israel, the occupying power, as they are about enhancing Palestinian state-building.

As violence escalates in Israel and Palestine, we take readers through the expanding military relationship between the UK and Israel, which has been erased by the British media. The deepening alliance involves UK military training of Israel for combat, joint exercises, arms deals, as well as intelligence cooperation.

Britain’s deepening military relationship with Israel comes under scrutiny as details emerge from Declassified UK’s information requests.

The UK press, from The Times to The Guardian, is also routinely helping to demonise states identified by the British government as enemies, while tending to whitewash those seen as allies.  The research, which analyses the UK national print media, suggests that the public is being bombarded by views and selective information supporting the priorities […]

Britain’s national press consistently portrays Britain as a supporter of noble objectives such as human rights and democracy. The extraordinary extent to which the public is being misinformed about the UK’s foreign and military policies is revealed in new statistical research by Declassified UK.

British foreign secretary Dominic Raab recently described the “rule of international law” as one of the “guiding lights” of UK foreign policy. By contrast, the government regularly chides states it opposes, such as Russia or Iran, as violators of international law. These governments are often consequently termed “rogue states” in the mainstream media, the supposed […]