LONDON: Pop star Dua Lipa joined some 300 UK celebrities in signing an open letter on Thursday urging Britain to halt arms sales to Israel, after similar pleas from lawyers and writers.
Actors, musicians, activists, and other public figures wrote the letter calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to “end the UK’s complicity in the horrors in Gaza.”
British Albanian pop sensation Dua Lipa has been vocal about the war in Gaza and last year criticized Israel’s offensive as a “genocide.”
Other signatories include actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, and Riz Ahmed, as well as musicians Paloma Faith, Annie Lennox, and
Massive Attack.
“You can’t call it ‘intolerable’ and keep sending arms,” read the letter to Labour leader Starmer, organized by Choose Love, a UK-based humanitarian aid and refugee advocacy charity.
Sports broadcaster Gary Lineker, who stepped down from his role at the BBC after a social media post that contained anti-Semitic imagery, also signed the letter.
Signatories urged the UK to ensure “full humanitarian access across Gaza,” broker an “immediate and permanent ceasefire,” and “immediately suspend” all arms sales to Israel.
“The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute. Prime Minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war
crimes, or the courage to act?,” the letter continued.
Earlier this month, Starmer slammed Israel’s “egregious” renewed military offensive in Gaza and promised to take “further concrete actions” if it did not stop — without detailing what the actions could be.
Last September, the UK government suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel, saying there was a “clear risk” they could be used to breach humanitarian law.
Global outrage has grown after Israel ended a ceasefire in March and stepped up military operations this month, killing thousands of people in a span of two months, according to figures by the Health Ministry.
The humanitarian situation has also sparked alarm and fears of starvation after a two-month blockade on aid entering the devastated territory.
Over 800 UK lawyers, including Supreme Court justices, and some 380 British and Irish writers warned of Israel committing a “genocide” in Gaza in open letters this week.
Israel’s military offensive launched in response to the October 2023 attack has killed 54,084, mostly civilians, in Gaza according to its health ministry, displaced nearly the entire population and ravaged swaths of the besieged strip.
