As Netanyahu turns Israel into a global pariah, does he care what Britain thinks?

My friends in Gaza - civilians who woke up on 7 October 2023 like the rest of the world, clueless, shocked, and scared - are on the run again this week. For the eighth time.

Israel bombed the building next to their home last week; blowing their neighbours - again, women, children - to pieces and burying them under more rubble.

Now the Israeli military is issuing new sweeping “evacuation” orders - dangerous directives that make no sense in the nightmare reality on the ground.

Under Israel’s total blockade, these friends struggle to eat, sometimes resorting to rotten food. They struggle to get clean water. They struggle to get nutrients to their young baby. They have lost dozens of extended family members. They have done nothing to deserve this.

Today - amid a level of suffering few have experienced in our lifetime - leaders of Britain, Canada, and France have threatened “concrete action” against Israel if it does not stop its renewed military offensive and lift crippling restrictions on humanitarian aid.

The warning comes just a day after Benjamin Netanyahu vowed he was “taking control of all of Gaza” and an Israeli military spokesperson ominously admitted there was “no end date necessarily” to their new expanded, ferocious offensive.

The total blockade on all aid going into Gaza is so severe that it has put almost all of 2.2 million population at risk of famine, according to the UN’s global food monitor. The impact is so great it is “genocide in action” according to Amnesty International.

Even the largest group representing the families of the 58 remaining hostages and captives inside Gaza have begged Netanyahu to stop - warning that their loved ones will only return in body bags, if they are returned at all.

And so, while many will criticise today’s joint statement for being too little, too late, it signals sanctions and the freezing of arms exports to Israel are on the cards.

It is also yet another indication of how the Israeli leader and his extreme-right administration are making Israel a global pariah.

London, Ottawa and Paris have said that Gideon’s Chariot, a new ferocious bombardment, “risks breaching international humanitarian law”.

“We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate,” the three Western leaders said in a joint missive.

They added they cannot stand by while Netanyahu pursues “these egregious actions”.

Even President Donald Trump, one of Israel’s closest allies, snubbed him during a glittering (and profitable) first big foreign trip to the Middle East region last week, when he chose not to drop into Israel.

Instead, Trump - who at heart is a transactional businessman who markets himself as a president of peace - signed trillion-dollar deals with Gulf leaders. He boasted about getting a free plane from Qatar.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed in Israel - where there are increasing concerns that Netanyahu, who slammed the UK, France, and Canada for “offering a huge prize” for the 7 October attacks, is dragging his population down with him.

Even opposition party leader Yair Golan of the Democrats said on Monday, Israel’s conduct in Gaza risks putting it on a path to becoming a “pariah state like South Africa once was, if it does not return to acting like a sane country”.

As left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz reported, Golan said “a sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population.”

Netanyahu dismissed this as “wild incitement” and declared the Israeli military to be the “most moral army in the world”, a wild statement in itself that fails to grasp an increasingly defining reality.

What could the UK do? In a research briefing published in January by the House of Commons, export licences should only be granted “if it determines there is no clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

From today’s statement, more export licenses may well be reviewed again. Under one of the last reviews in September 2024, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the partial suspension of around 30 licences to Israel.

These included components for fighter aircraft F-16s, parts for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), naval systems, and targeting equipment.

The UK’s arms sales to Israel are small in comparison to the US and Germany, and over time, they have been decreasing in part. According to the House of Commons research briefing, the UK government granted licences valued at £42 million in 2022.

The value of exports dropped to £18 million in 2023. And then between 7 October 2023 and 31 May 2024, the government granted 108 licences for military and non-military controlled goods to Israel.

But even after the 2024 suspension, there are still approximately 250 arms licences in place which could also be reviewed. The statement could signal the start of pressure that the UK, Canada and France may put on allies like Germany and the US, the biggest arms suppliers to Israel, to follow suit.

Either way Netanyahu and the extreme-right fanatics in his government are dragging Israel’s population into a void that they may struggle to get out of.