Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
SNP calls for ‘immediate end to arms sales to Israel’
The body of a victim of an Israeli army strike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp is carried for the funeral at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah, January 1, 2025

HALT arms sales to Israel immediately, the Scottish National Party demanded today.

The party’s Middle East spokesman Brendan O’Hara, one of the foremost parliamentary champions of the Palestinian cause, said that securing peace “will require more than diplomatic statements — it will require firm diplomatic action, including an immediate end to arms sales to Israel.”

Mr O’Hara added that “the ceasefire achieved in Lebanon is welcome, but it must not diminish or dilute the strength of our efforts in stopping the collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza.   

“For too long, far too many in the international community have been guilty of offering support for those Israeli actions, instead of sanction.
 
“A renewed commitment from the international community this new year is the only path to peace in Gaza and Israel, the only path to a two-state solution and the only hope of a permanent peace across the wider Middle East.”

Labour left campaign group Momentum also joined the calls, saying “the UK Government still continues to supply arms for Israel’s brutal genocide against the Palestinian people. Outrageous.”

And a Stop the War Coalition spokesperson said that “stopping British arms sales to Israel must be a top priority for the solidarity movement in 2025.”

Amnesty International is the latest human rights body to dub Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have killed around 45,000 Palestinians, with more than two-thirds being women and children, genocidal.

Parliamentary opposition to the genocide was spearheaded by the SNP prior to the general election, when it used its status as the third-largest party in parliament to regularly secure time to debate the issue.

Since the election, in which the SNP lost most of their Westminster seats and the Liberal Democrats returned to third parliamentary place, opportunities to highlight the crisis have diminished.

All forms of support for the Palestinian people were damned in an extraordinary article in the Jewish Chronicle by far-right pundit Melanie Phillips originally headlined “If you support the Palestinian cause in any form you’re facilitating Jew-hate.”

After a storm of protest the headline was changed but the hate-filled article remains on the Chronicle’s site in the latest scandal to shake the once-respected newspaper.

Last year most of its centrist columnists left after it emerged that editor Jake Wallis-Simons, a veteran of tabloid journalism, had been publishing articles by an Israeli writer that were fabricated.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Protesters on Whitehall in London, as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers her spring statement to MPs in the House of Commons, London, March 26, 2025
Labour Austerity / 24 June 2025
24 June 2025

Disability charity Sense applauds rebel MPs for ‘pushing back against this unjust policy’

Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to the media as he visits the Netherlands marines training base, as part of the UK-Netherland Joint Amphibious Force in Rotterdam, Netherlands, June 24, 2025, on the sidelines of the NATO summit
Nato / 24 June 2025
24 June 2025
President Donald Trump speaks from the East Room of the White House in Washington, June 21, 2025, after the U.S. military struck three Iranian nuclear and military sites
Eyes Left / 25 June 2025
25 June 2025

Tehran has not been toppled, but a significant blow has been made against the last major state supporter of Palestinian resistance, allowing Israel to redouble its genocidal efforts on its doorstep, writes ANDREW MURRAY

President Donald Trump meets with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G7 Summit, June 16, 2025, in Kananaskis, Canada
Iran / 19 June 2025
19 June 2025

MPs and campaigners warn Starmer not to join attack on Iran

Similar stories
Smoke rises following an explosion in the Gaza Strip, as see
Britain / 7 January 2025
7 January 2025
People carry their luggage as they cross on foot into Syria
Features / 5 October 2024
5 October 2024
The lack of diplomatic efforts to end wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and Congo shame the international community — as the death tolls mount, we need an urgent shift towards peace-building and justice, writes JEREMY CORBYN MP
Ali Abdel Rahman Zorout, (5), who was wounded by an Israeli
Britain / 26 September 2024
26 September 2024
Britain's call for temporary Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire not enough, campaigners say