Will foreign interference probe ignore Israel funding Westminster arms group?

Keir Starmer’s government has just decided to investigate foreign interference in UK politics. And one key question is, will it totally ignore interference on behalf of Israel? Because as a new report has just revealed, an arms company of the apartheid state was:

temporarily part-funding the All-Party Parliamentary Group [APPG] for Defence Technology.

This is on top of the ongoing interference of the increasingly powerful and aggressive Israel lobby in the UK, which has coincided with an unprecedented crackdown on freedom of speech.

However, reports suggest the government’s new probe will only focus on states whose crimes it doesn’t support.

Israeli company under the control of extremist minister Bezalel Smotrich

Declassified UK reports that its investigation into the APPG showed it had taken:

£1,499 from RUK Advanced Systems Ltd, which is part of the Israeli state-owned defence giant, Rafael.

And it notes that company records show this company was under the control of:

the Israeli government’s Ministry of Finance, which is led by far-right politician Bezalel Smotrich who is sanctioned by Britain for inciting “extremist violence” against Palestinians.

Smotrich has made numerous comments showing genocidal intent during Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The APPG chair referred himself to a Standards Committee probe as a result, which concluded there had been a:

failure to conduct adequate due diligence

As Declassified says:

The report published last week appears to be the first of its kind, in a stark admission of foreign influence over Westminster.

And it adds that there have been:

years of warnings from transparency campaigners that APPGs can operate as a “back door” for lobbyists.

RUK’s director claimed neither Israel’s government nor Rafael had told him to fund the APPG, but that they did so:

as a part of a PR and marketing campaign to raise the profile of the company.

Get the Israel lobby out of parliament

Former UK diplomat Richard Dalton has argued that the Israel lobby “is a very powerful force in our society”. And there have been numerous examples of how large donations from pro-Israel lobbyists feed into the UK’s stubborn support for Israel despite its illegal occupation of Palestine and the war crimes that power it.

The Israel lobby funds a massive chunk of the UK’s top-level politicians, from the Conservatives to Labour. And if any probe into foreign interference is to be truly meaningful, it must pay attention to this.

Lobbyists for unscrupulous regimes and corporations are severely undermining our democratic rights and freedoms. And getting their influence out of parliament must be a priority.

Featured image via the Canary