CAMPAIGNERS welcomed a government decision today to ban Israeli officials from Britain's leading arms fair — but called ministers "cowardly“ for accepting arms companies which supply Israel.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed on Thursday that Israeli government delegates will be barred from next month's Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition.

Arms companies abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, however, will still be allowed at the fair, which will open at London’s ExCeL centre on September 9.

Israel’s defence ministry called the decision a “deliberate and regrettable act of discrimination” adding that it would be withdrawing and not setting up a national pavilion.

A full exhibitor list has not yet been published, but researchers at Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) have compiled a list of more than 500 out of 1,600 companies due to attend.

Firms include Elbit Systems, which makes 85 per cent of the drones used by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), as well as Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems, which play a vital role in supplying F-35 jets used to drop bombs in Gaza.

CAAT’s Emily Apple said: “While CAAT welcomes the government’s decision not to invite an official Israeli delegation to DSEI, it is cowardly and symbolic.

“This is the government pretending to take action while safeguarding the profits of arms dealers.

“At the same time it’s banning an official Israeli delegation, it is on the cusp of awarding a £2 billion contract to Elbit Systems.”

Private Eye magazine has reported that Elbit is bidding on a contract with the MoD, which would see the firm train up to 60,000 British soldiers a year.

“These are not the actions of a government committed to taking action against Israel,” Ms Apple said.

“These are the actions of a government complicit in a genocide.”

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) deputy director Simon Foster called the ban a “testament to all those who have campaigned against DSEI’s role in arming Israel’s oppression of Palestinians,” but criticised the government for not going far enough in enforcing an arms embargo and ending military co-operation.

Ministers are still allowing Israeli arms companies to “exhibit their weapons of ethnic cleansing” alongside other firms that “enable and profit from genocide,” he said, adding that DSEI “should be cancelled in its entirety.”

Protesters will demonstrate outside DSEI on September 10 at 5pm.