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“[The government] must also halt Britain’s arms exports to Israel,” wrote Liberal Democrat leader and now Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on January 7th 2009, as the world watched Israeli shells destroying a UN school in Gaza.  The title of Clegg’s article was unambiguous; “We must stop arming Israel”.

On Friday, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee [BNC], a broad coalition encompassing all political factions, and a wealth of trade unions, NGOs and civil organisations, released a call for an immediate and comprehensive military embargo of Israel.  It is time for us to heed that call.

“A comprehensive military embargo on Israel is long overdue,” reads the statement.  “It forms a crucial step towards ending Israel’s unlawful and criminal use of force against the Palestinian people and other peoples and states in the region, and it constitutes an effective, non-violent measure to pressure Israel to comply with its obligations under international law.”

The call was made on the anniversary of a 2004 International Court of Justice ruling on the legality of the Wall that Israel has constructed, which snakes through the West Bank, separating Palestinian communities from their land.  By a vote of 14 judges to 1, the court concluded that “Israel is under an obligation to terminate its breaches of international law; it is under an obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wa... >>>