OUR STATEMENT
Edinburgh Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee – August 24th, 2024
For ten unbearable months, the apartheid state of Israel has inflicted unspeakable atrocities upon the people of Palestine. Amidst hollow pontifications and murmured platitudes of a ceasefire and an arms embargo, the United Kingdom remains firmly and utterly complicit in this strategic genocidal project, not least the political bureaucrats of Scotland. Despite its vote on November 21st in support of an immediate ceasefire, the Scottish Government continues to bestow public funding upon multiple arms manufacturers which supply Israel’s arsenal, thereby fueling the systematic extermination of Palestinian men, women, and children. We, the people of Edinburgh, refuse to merely bear witness as our political “representatives” aid and abet the ongoing genocide in Gaza—we demand an end to complicity in our communities, our city, and our nation.
On January 26th, 2024, the International Court of Justice found it “plausible” that Israel had committed genocidal acts against the Palestinian people during its invasion and bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Amongst several provisional measures presented in accordance with the Genocide Convention, the court ruled that the Israeli military must immediately desist from killing or causing serious bodily and mental harm to Palestinians in Gaza. Nearly six months later, on July 19th, the ICJ furthermore ruled that Israel’s occupation and annexation of Palestine amounts to the crime of apartheid, obligating all states to end economic and political support for Israel’s brutal subjugation of the Palestinian people.
Despite these clear rulings from the world’s highest court, Israel has continued its project of genocide and apartheid with total impunity and unwavering material support from the US, UK, and other Western powers. Since October 7th, 2023, Israeli forces have slaughtered more than 40,900 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including nearly 16,650 children.[1] Additionally, over 10,000 remain missing under the rubble in Gaza, meaning the actual death toll is likely much higher.[1] According to recent estimations from the Lancet, one of the world’s most reputable medical journals, the number of Palestinian deaths caused by Israel’s onslaught could potentially surpass 186,000 if a ceasefire is not reached, constituting the annihilation of around 8% of Gaza’s total population.[2] On top of the sheer number of those killed by Israel, at least 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza have been forcibly displaced—9 out of every 10 people in the Strip.[3] Israel has rendered Gaza completely unlivable, with nearly all civil infrastructure demolished or incapacitated. According to UN satellite imagery, 63% of all building structures in Gaza have either been damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombardment, including more than 215,130 housing units.[4] In its ruthless campaign against the Gazan people, Israel has bombed countless hospitals, schools, refugee camps, mosques, churches, press offices, and UN facilities, amounting to nothing less than flagrant war crimes.
These circumstances unequivocally establish a moral and legal duty for all countries to reject any involvement in Israel’s crimes against humanity. And yet, with shameless disregard, the United Kingdom continues to export arms to the Zionist state, with 345 current export licenses of military goods to Israel and 185 license applications still in progress.[5] This complicity remains even as legal experts and humanitarian advocacy groups urge the UK Government to change course. On February 28, multiple high-profile UK humanitarian organisations—including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Christian Aid—released a joint statement demanding an immediate suspension of military exports to Israel to avoid culpability in war crimes.[6] On April 3rd, more than 600 British judges and lawyers published a letter with similar concerns, warning that “the provision of military assistance and material to Israel may render the UK complicit in genocide.”[7] More recently, on August 16th, Foreign Office official Mark Smith resigned in protest of the government’s refusal to impose an arms embargo, stating that “there is no justification for the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel.”[8] Despite this mounting political and legal pressure, the UK Government persists in its support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza without remorse.
The Scottish Government is far from blameless in this criminal affair. While Holyrood has attempted to posture itself as critical of Israel’s atrocities with a ceasefire vote and scattered calls for an arms embargo, its actions behind the scenes prove otherwise. On February 21st, the Scottish Parliament hosted a reception showcasing arms companies which manufacture for Israel, including BAE Systems, Thales, Raytheon, and Leonardo UK.[9] On August 8th, Scottish External Affairs secretary Angus Robertson held a secret meeting with Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UK,[10] a brazen act of normalisation in the midst of an unfolding genocide. But the Scottish Government’s support for the Zionist state goes beyond mere diplomacy. Since 2016, Scottish Enterprises has given over £18 million in public grants to arms companies which supply weapons to Israel,[11][12] including £769,125 since the start of the genocide on October 7th, 2023.[13]
Among the arms companies funded by the Scottish Government is Leonardo UK, the British subsidiary of Italian multinational Leonardo SpA. Leonardo operates a site in Crewe Toll, Edinburgh, which manufactures laser targeting systems for the F-35 Lightning II, jets which are used by Israel to relentlessly bomb the Gaza Strip.[14] Scottish Enterprise disbursed £7 million in grants to Leonardo between 2016 and 2020,[11] as well as £627,000 on March 22nd, 2023,[15] and £159,125 on October 18th, 2023,[13]—only 11 days after Israel began its ongoing aerial bombardment of Gaza. Beyond all doubt, Leonardo and the Scottish Government are directly culpable in aiding Israel’s crimes against humanity, providing both financial and material resources for deadly precision airstrikes against Palestinian civilians.
As the people of Edinburgh, we will not allow genocide profiteering to go unchallenged in our city. In accordance with international law, moral necessity, and basic human dignity, it is our duty to ensure that our communities are not complicit in the slaughter and subjugation of the Palestinian people. Thus, we are launching Target Leonardo, a strategic campaign organised to maximise our local impact on the rising momentum towards a comprehensive UK arms embargo on Israel. We demand an end to Scottish public funding for Leonardo UK, and aim to foster community awareness and resistance against the Leonardo factory in Crewe Toll. We call on all Edinburgh residents and members of the Scottish public to join our campaign. For ten unbearable months, our marches, pickets, petitions, and chants have fallen on deaf ears. To the politicians and government officials, the moral cowards who have ignored our appeals, we make our intentions perfectly clear: As long as Leonardo targets Palestinians from our communities and with our public funds, we will target Leonardo, and we will target you.
References
1. Al Jazeera – https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker
2. Lancet – https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext
3. UNFPA – https://www.unfpa.org/occupied-palestinian-territory
4. UNOSAT – https://unosat.org/products/3904
5. UK Department for Business and Trade – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/export-control-licensing-management-information-for-israel/export-control-licensing-data-31-may-2024
7. https://lawyersletter.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gaza-letter-FIN-3-April.pdf
8. BBC – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyvpm1049d9o
9. The National – https://www.thenational.scot/news/24112596.protest-called-amid-fury-holyrood-invitation-firms-arming-israel/
10. Holyrood Magazine – https://www.holyrood.com/inside-politics/view,what-is-the-row-over-the-snps-angus-robertson-meeting-an-israeli-ambassador
11. The Ferret – https://theferret.scot/arms-firms-israel-10m-scottish-enterprise-grants/
12. CAAT – https://caat.org.uk/take-action/campaign-with-us/stop-funding-repression/
13. The Ferret – https://theferret.scot/scottish-government-grants-arms-firms-israel/
15. Scottish Enterprise – https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/media/athfjjma/copy-of-final-report-se-expenditure-over-25k-22-23-09-04-24.pdf