UK voters support ban on arms sales to Israel, poll shows

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters attended the eighth national march for Palestine in London on Feb. 3, 2024. (AN Photo)
Short Url
Updated 03 April 2024
Follow

UK voters support ban on arms sales to Israel, poll shows

  • YouGov survey finds 56% of respondents in favor of restrictions
  • Support strongest among Labour voters

LONDON: A majority of voters in Britain support a ban on the sale of arms to Israel, according to a YouGov poll.

The survey of more than 2,000 people was commissioned by Action for Humanity and conducted before Monday’s airstrike by Israeli forces that killed seven aid workers, including three Britons.

The poll, reported by The Guardian on Wednesday, found that 56 percent of respondents favored a ban on the export of arms and spare parts, compared to 17 percent who did not.

Support for a ban was strongest among those planning to vote for Labour in the upcoming elections, with 71 percent in favor versus 9 percent against.

Seventy percent of Liberal Democrat voters support the ban, while among Conservative supporters, just 38 percent were in favor, with 36 percent against it.

In the poll, 59 percent of people said Israel was violating human rights in Gaza, with two out of three Conservative voters thinking that, The Guardian reported.

The findings will be disappointing for Israel, which has historically relied on strong UK support. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that his country’s efforts to destroy Hamas as a fighting force were dependent on Western backing.

Some senior Israeli politicians have expressed concerns that Israel is slipping into pariah status on the world stage.

Nearly 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, but the deaths of the British, Polish, Canadian and Australian aid workers appear to have created a tipping point for Western powers.

The incident prompted several Conservative politicians on Wednesday to call on the British government to stop exporting arms to Israel.
 


Trump says he’s dropping push for National Guard in Chicago, LA and Portland, Oregon, for now

Updated 8 sec ago
Follow

Trump says he’s dropping push for National Guard in Chicago, LA and Portland, Oregon, for now

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks hung up the effort.
Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that he’s removing the Guard troops for now. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again — Only a question of time!” he wrote.
Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier this year as part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration. They had been sent to Chicago and Portland but were never on the streets as legal challenges played out.