Declassified documents show UK aware of Israeli war crimes for 24 years

UK Foreign Office files, public since 2024, record warnings about Israeli violence and rights abuses since 2002.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with his British counterpart Tony Blair in Jerusalem November 1, 2001 [File: Natalie Behring/ Reuters]

British diplomats condemned Israeli conduct in the occupied West Bank as a pattern of human rights abuses in 2002 – 24 years before London took a tougher stance towards Israel this week.

These decades-old condemnations are contained in UK Foreign Office files written during the administration of former Prime Minister Tony Blair while Israel undertook a brutal 2002 offensive in the occupied West Bank.

list 1 of 3 The limits of the UK’s ban on Israeli settlement goods

list 2 of 3 How has Israel hit back against sanctions by the UK, others?

list 3 of 3 As the UK sanctions Israeli settlements, is the two-state solution dead?

The files, released in 2024 and reported in a recent investigation by the website Declassified UK, record British diplomats describing a pattern of abuses by a state their own government would go on to arm for the next two decades.

Today, Blair sits on the Board of Peace that presides over Gaza, where Israel’s disregard for Palestinian lives and the rules of war has been demonstrated on a genocidal scale, while the UK’s newly seated leadership refer to Israel’s actions as “a stain on the conscience of the world”.

But what did the British government already know about Israel’s actions more than 20 years ago?

That record begins in March 2002, when then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launched Operation Defensive Shield in retaliation for a wave of attacks by Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas.

Israeli forces tore through the occupied West Bank, killing 500 Palestinians in a single month, mostly civilians, and injuring another 1,500.

British officials were deeply aware of the scale of violations committed by Israeli forces.

A Foreign Office official wrote at the time that Israeli military operations in the West Bank involved a “pattern” of “human rights abuses”.

A senior British army officer was more blunt, calling the Israeli military a “second-rate, ill-disciplined, swaggering and bullying force”.

“They routinely use excessive force such as firing at the ‘legs’ of stone throwers or at ‘car tyres’ with the inevitable stream of ambulances ferrying youths to hospital with fatal bullet wounds to the head and body,” wrote the officer who was unnamed in the files.

Those concerns were put to the Israeli government directly.

Lord Michael Levy, Blair’s special envoy, warned then-Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer that there was no military solution, and that the campaign would only produce more suicide bombers.

The Israeli violations described in the files have only multiplied, even becoming routine across occupied Palestinian territory.

Officials also wrote of Red Cross staff threatened at gunpoint, and their ambulances not allowed to reach the wounded. Today, intimidation and targeting of medics has become standard operating procedure for Israeli forces and settlers.

The World Health Organization has documented 3,254 Israeli attacks on healthcare across the occupied Palestinian territory over 20 years, killing or injuring more than 4,200 patients and medical staff. More than half of those attacks – and the deadliest of them – have come in the past three years.

What the UK did next

Armed with the knowledge of Israel’s systematic human rights abuses, Blair’s government did act.

In 2002, it secretly halted arms exports to Israel for a time, after confirming British equipment was being used in occupied territory in breach of guarantees given.

But no UK government has gone as far as that brief embargo since.

As Israel’s violence escalated, the British response to it has diminished.

When, in 2008-2009, Israel killed about 1,400 Palestinians during 22 days of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, more than eight in 10 of them civilians, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown revoked licences for weapons on Israeli navy missile boats.

When Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza killed 2,251 Palestinians, among them 551 children, David Cameron’s government identified 12 licences for suspension. It also said it would act if hostilities resumed; it did not.

When Israel’s current genocidal campaign in Gaza had already killed 40,000 by September 2024, Keir Starmer’s government only suspended 30 of 350 arms licences for Israel. Campaign groups later reported thousands of munitions reaching Israel anyway. That toll now stands at 73,658 Palestinians killed, including 21,500 children.

That is the record Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government hinted it may finally break with, as the UK and 11 other countries this month backed restrictions on trade with illegal Israeli ⁠settlements in the occupied West Bank.

英国外交部文件（自 2024 年起公开）记录了自 2002 年以来对以色列暴力和侵犯人权行为的警告。

2001年11月1日，以色列总理阿里埃勒·沙龙与英国首相托尼·布莱尔在耶路撒冷会面。[图片：Natalie Behring/路透社]

2002 年，英国外交官谴责以色列在被占领的西岸地区的行为是侵犯人权的惯常做法——24 年前，伦敦本周才对以色列采取了更强硬的立场。

这些几十年前的谴责文件保存在英国外交部的档案中，这些档案是在前首相托尼·布莱尔执政期间撰写的，当时以色列在2002年对被占领的西岸地区发动了残酷的进攻。

列表 1/3：英国对以色列定居点商品禁令的局限性

（共 3 题，第 2 题）以色列如何反击英国和其他国家实施的制裁？

列表 3/3：随着英国制裁以色列定居点，两国方案是否已死？

这些文件于 2024 年公布，英国解密网站最近的一项调查报道了这些文件。文件记录了英国外交官对一个国家的一系列侵犯人权行为的描述，而英国政府在接下来的二十年里却继续向该国提供武器。

如今，布莱尔是负责加沙事务的和平委员会成员，而以色列在加沙对巴勒斯坦人的生命和战争规则的漠视已经达到了种族灭绝的程度，与此同时，英国新上任的领导层将以色列的行为称为“世界良知的污点”。

但英国政府在20多年前对以色列的行动究竟了解多少呢？

该记录始于 2002 年 3 月，当时以色列总理阿里埃勒·沙龙发起“防御盾牌行动”，以报复包括哈马斯在内的巴勒斯坦武装团体的一系列袭击。

以色列军队横扫被占领的西岸，一个月内造成 500 名巴勒斯坦人死亡，其中大部分是平民，另有 1500 人受伤。

英国官员非常清楚以色列军队犯下的侵犯人权行为的规模。

当时一位外交部官员写道，以色列在西岸的军事行动涉及一系列“侵犯人权”的行为。

一位英国高级军官的措辞更加直白，称以色列军队是“一支二流的、纪律涣散的、趾高气扬的、欺凌弱小的部队”。

“他们经常过度使用武力，例如向投掷石块者的‘腿’或‘汽车轮胎’开枪，结果就是救护车源源不断地将头部和身体中弹身亡的年轻人送往医院，”文件中未透露姓名的警官写道。

这些担忧已直接向以色列政府提出。

布莱尔的特使迈克尔·利维勋爵警告当时的国防大臣本雅明·本-埃利泽，军事手段无法解决问题，而且这场运动只会制造出更多的自杀式炸弹袭击者。

文件中所描述的以色列侵犯行为不仅没有减少，反而愈演愈烈，甚至在被占领的巴勒斯坦领土上已成为常态。

官员们还写道，红十字会工作人员遭到枪指威胁，他们的救护车也被禁止前往伤员所在地。如今，恐吓和袭击医务人员已成为以色列军队和定居者的惯用伎俩。

世界卫生组织记录显示，过去20年间，以色列在被占领的巴勒斯坦领土上对医疗机构发动了3254起袭击，造成4200多名患者和医务人员伤亡。其中超过一半的袭击——以及最致命的袭击——发生在过去三年。

英国接下来做了什么

布莱尔政府掌握了以色列系统性侵犯人权的真相后，采取了行动。

2002 年，英国确认以色列违反保证，在被占领土上使用英国装备后，秘密停止了对以色列的武器出口。

但自那以后，英国历届政府都没有采取过像那次短暂的禁运措施。

随着以色列暴力事件升级，英国对此的反应却有所减弱。

2008-2009 年，以色列在加沙地带发动了为期 22 天的“铸铅行动”，造成约 1400 名巴勒斯坦人死亡，其中超过 80% 是平民。当时的首相戈登·布朗吊销了以色列海军导弹艇上的武器许可证。

2014年以色列对加沙的袭击造成2251名巴勒斯坦人死亡，其中包括551名儿童。当时，戴维·卡梅伦政府确定了12个需要吊销的许可证。政府还表示，如果敌对行动再次发生，将会采取行动；但敌对行动并未再次发生。

截至2024年9月，以色列在加沙地带的种族灭绝行动已造成4万人死亡，而基尔·斯塔默领导的政府仅暂停了以色列350份武器许可证中的30份。此后，多个维权组织报告称，仍有数千枚弹药流入以色列。目前，巴勒斯坦人死亡人数已达73658人，其中包括21500名儿童。

英国首相安迪·伯纳姆领导的政府暗示，他们可能最终会打破这一纪录。本月，英国和其他 11 个国家支持限制与被占领的西岸以色列非法定居点的贸易。