ACTIVISTS from London for a Free Palestine occupied the Department of Business and Trade today, demanding that the British government stop arming Israel.

The campaigners took over the lobby in the Old Admiralty Building, chanting: “British government you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”

One protester, Maria, said: “We are going here today because the Department for Business and Trade is where the licences for British arms exports to Israel are signed and approved.

“The UK has been giving Israel diplomatic, military and economic support, which has enabled it to carry out and continue its genocide and long-term colonisation of Palestine.”

Another participant, Cynthia Allett, said: “This department arms genocide.

“As Israel prepares a ground invasion in Rafah, we won’t allow the weapons used to slaughter more Palestinian people to be supplied in our names and funded by our taxes.” 

Since the Conservative government was elected in 2015, Britain has licensed arms to Israeli forces worth a total of £472 million, according to Campaign Against Arms Trade.

Any company that wants to export arms must apply for a licence at the export control joint unit of the Department for Business and Trade. 

According to Britain’s arms export criteria, if there is a “clear risk” that a weapon might be used in a serious violation of international humanitarian law, then an arms export should not be licensed.

In December, Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the Global Legal Action Network applied for a judicial review of the government's export licences for the sale of weapons to Israel, made in response to the International Court of Justice finding it plausible that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. But in February, judges at the High Court dismissed the case. 

Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell was unable to rule out that no parts supplied by Britain were used to bomb a compound housing medical staff from a British charity in Gaza in January. 

On Wednesday, over 100 MPs signed a letter demanding that the government put a halt to all arms sales, expressing concerns that arming Israel would make Britain complicit in war crimes and other breaches of international law.

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “We take our defence export responsibilities extremely seriously and operate one of the most robust export licensing controls in the world.”

The calls come as other countries review their arms trade agreements with Israel. 

Last month, a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands to stop supplying F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, and in January, Canada issued a freeze on new arms export permits to Israel.