For the UK Gaza ceasefire is fig leaf for selling arms to Israel

Amidst the seemingly imminent progression to the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, it’s worth reflecting on what news coverage on Palestine looks like now, and what that means for the Palestinian struggle.

Two and a half years into Israel’s genocide, the Palestinian people have been practically entirely stricken from the British mainstream media agenda. That doesn’t mean there is no mention of Palestine, or more specifically the Gaza Strip, but it is coming up through reporting on the global machinations of imperialist powers, rather than through a concern for the Palestinian people.

We hear about Gaza through Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the nefarious US plan to further entrench colonial rule over Palestine, which represents the Gaza Strip as a piece of real estate up for grabs. It is spoken about as though a piece of land detached from the millions of Palestinians for whom Gaza is a beloved home. This is so even despite—and perhaps more so since—Israel’s unprecedented bombardment, which has left the once-beautiful land, replete with orange and olive groves and vibrant cities with busy markets, looking like the aftermath of a nuclear disaster.

Though their suffering is no longer laid bare on the covers of British newspapers, the horrors inflicted on the Palestinian people have not stopped. Israeli aircrafts and drones have continued to bomb the Gaza Strip almost daily since the so-called ceasefire came into effect in October 2025. Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians since then, continuing to target medical workers, journalists and children, amongst others.

The aid on which the ceasefire was predicated has barely made a difference, as Israel has continued to deny its entry into Gaza. Rates of malnourishment, hypothermia and death from disease are reaching new catastrophic levels, as Palestinians in Gaza are facing the winter in tents flooded with rain and sewage and little protection against the freezing conditions.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are rampaging through Palestinian villages, setting fire to homes and other property, stealing sheep and other livestock, and beating anyone they can find. The Israeli military assists them openly, and spreads terror in towns and cities as well.

This week the military conducted massive arrest raids across the West Bank, interrogating at least 100 people in one night. Some were beaten, interrogated and released, but others were thrown into Israel’s prisons along with more than 9,000 others, including hundreds of children.

Thousands of Palestinians kidnapped from Gaza are being held in torture camps without even any semblance of the fake or trumped up charges that other prisoners are given.

Recent reports have detailed the shocking abuse, including sexual assault, that prison guards inflict on the imprisoned Palestinians. I spoke with a Palestinian human rights lawyer in the West Bank last week after the report came out and she remarked that even their previous copious evidence about the torture of prisoners was nothing like they are seeing now.

It would be wrong to say that the British government is doing nothing. Just the opposite—the British government has continued selling arms to Israel throughout the genocide. This includes parts for the F-35 fighter jets that pummel the Gaza Strip, and drones that carry out ‘targeted’ attacks that have killed families sleeping in their tent shelters.

In 2024, after huge pressure from campaigners, the British government suspended 30 arms export licences, unfortunately just a drop in the barrel of what should have been done. But now, after the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000, and more than 20,000 children, and the killing continues, the British government has indicated that it may renew those licences now.

Even if Israel had stopped its bombing, its raids, its torture camps, renewing these licences would contradict every recommendation from every UN body and human rights expert. And what’s more, it would contradict the government’s own stated policy on arms exports that would see a halt if there is even a risk they would be used in violation of international law.

The British government is making a perilous calculation—believing that just as mainstream media has ‘moved on’ from Palestine, so will the British public. As a solidarity movement, it is our duty to show that just the opposite is true, and we have strong ground to stand on from the tireless campaigning over the past two years.

Some 30 local councils across Britain have passed motions in support of divesting from companies involved in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people, and nearly 1000 local councillors have pledged to take action in support of Palestine just over the past few months.

Thousands of people have closed their Barclays bank accounts, with a letter to the bank making explicit that they won’t hold their money in a bank that does business with the likes of Elbit Systems, whose drones and cluster munitions are responsible for uncountable deaths in Palestine and Lebanon.

And thousands of people across Britain have taken up our ‘Don’t Buy Apartheid’ campaign to push their local food shops not to stock Israeli produce. And last May, a majority of Co-op members voted to get Israeli goods off the shop’s shelves.

These actions have a serious impact-latest reports have shown that Israeli agricultural exporters are struggling to find markets for their (stolen) goods internationally.     

Of course I would be remiss not to mention the millions of people across Britain who have taken part in our massive national marches for Palestine.

This Saturday, we’ll be taking to the streets again for our 34th national march for Palestine since October 2023. It’s so important for us to be out in huge numbers, to show the Trump administration that there will be global resistance to its plans to run Palestine like a real estate game; to show the British government that we will not be silenced and we will continue to push for an immediate arms embargo on Israel; and to show the Palestinian people that even if their struggle is no longer on tv screens, we have not looked away.

Ryvka Barnard is the Deputy Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK.

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