Saturday 14th of June 2025
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Britain’s defence secretary, John Healey, walked through oncoming traffic to escape questions about why the UK is still sharing military intelligence with Israel.

Healey told Declassified he had “nothing more to add” about the hundreds of Royal Air Force (RAF) surveillance flights over Gaza.

The flights have continued despite Keir Starmer’s government placing sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers whose roles include national security and defence.

Healey was questioned about the flights after leaving a cabinet meeting in Downing Street yesterday. 

Flanked by two security guards, he narrowly avoided a lorry as he hurried across Whitehall towards his office in the Ministry of Defence.  

When first asked about the RAF’s spy flights, the defence secretary responded by simply saying “good morning”. 

But when Declassified pressed him, he said: “I’ve made entirely clear to parliament the nature of those flights; the restrictive nature of the intelligence linked to finding and helping free hostages. And I’ve got nothing more to add.”

Despite Healey’s claim, there is no evidence that any hostages have been found by the more than 500 spy flights that take off from an RAF base in Cyprus. 

And the only British nationals among the hostages were either killed during Israeli military operations, or freed in the “ceasefire” earlier this year.

Meanwhile, UK foreign secretary David Lammy has acknowledged that Israeli forces are unlikely to secure the release of the remaining hostages. 

Last month he told parliament: “Whatever Israeli ministers claim, this is not the way to bring the hostages safely home. Nearly all the hostages have been freed through negotiations, not military force.” 

A group of Israeli military intelligence officers said this week they would no longer participate in combat operations in Gaza as Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had given the hostages a “death sentence” and its orders were “clearly illegal”.

Support

As defence secretary, John Healey has continued to allow “a limited number” of Israeli troops to attend military training courses in the UK, it was revealedin parliament yesterday.

Healey has also developed strong relations with his Israeli counterparts.

New documents obtained by Declassified show his intention last year to “progress our bilateral Defence relationship”.

He even flew to Tel Aviv last August to meet the then Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza.

According to Gallant, the pair discussed their “commitment to maintaining and further strengthening cooperation in a number of strategic and military areas”.

Afterwards, Healey spoke of his “support for Israel’s security” and said the UK government would “not alter our unshakable commitment to support Israel’s right to self-defence”.

Healey was also instrumental in blocking a full arms embargo against Israel. In a letter to the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, he said that such a move would “undermine US confidence in the UK and NATO at a critical juncture in our collective history and set back relations.”

He added: “It is not possible to suspend licensing F-35 [fighter jet] components for use by Israel without wide impacts to the whole F-35 programme. 

“Such a suspension of F-35 licensing leading to the consequent disruption for partner aircraft, even for a brief period, would have a profound impact on international peace and security.”

Interviews

When he was apprehended by Declassified yesterday, Healey also defended his refusal to do a full sit-down interview about the UK’s continued intelligence sharing with Israel.

He claimed: “I think you’d be hard-pressed to come up with another cabinet member who’s done more sit-down interviews with the media in the last two or three weeks than me as defence secretary because we face very difficult times – changing world, increasing threats.”

However, none of these interviews have addressed the Gaza spy flights, or the UK’s intelligence sharing with Israel. 

The defence secretary has repeatedly refused Declassified’s requests for a formal interview and cut off our questions yesterday when he walked into the Ministry of Defence offices. 

After taking Healey behind closed doors, his security guards returned to check if filming had stopped and asked who we were.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-defence-secretary-walks-away-from-gaza-spy-flight-questions/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

"sanctioned"....

 

UK POLICE SPENT THOUSANDS PROTECTING ISRAELI ARMS FIRM
Exclusive: Public money spent on guarding Newcastle factory owned by Israel’s ministry of finance, which is run by UK-sanctioned ‘extremist’.
BY JOHN MCEVOY

 

A police force in England has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds protecting an arms factory owned by Israel’s ministry of finance, Declassified can reveal.

Based in Newcastle, Pearson Engineering manufactures “mobility equipment to armed forces around the world”, including the British military.

The arms firm was acquired by Israel’s state-owned arms giant Rafael in 2022. Its financial records show how the country’s ministry of finance now has “significant control” over the company.

Documents seen by Declassified reveal Northumbria police have spent £209,755 policing pro-Palestine protests at Pearson Engineering’s site, as well as at the University of Newcastle since October 2023.

The bulk of this money was likely spent protecting the Israeli-owned factory. The data includes just one incident at the university while it covers at least four protests at Pearson’s factory between October 2023 and February 2025.

Northumbria police said the £209,755 in policing costs accounted for a total of 337 hours of police work – amounting to £622 per hour.

The revelation comes as the UK government sanctions Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, raising concerns about the ongoing operation of the factory in Newcastle.

Jason Hussein, the vice chair of Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told Declassified: “When activists jam the gears of genocide, they are frequently met with a huge police presence and a disproportionate use of force resulting in the assaults and arrests of peaceful protestors, with Palestinians and people of colour often targeted.

“Just a day after the UK sanctioned the Israeli finance minister, business continues as usual and the weapons keep flowing. This factory is not welcome in Newcastle and we urge the UK government to back up their rhetoric with action”.

Pearson Engineering

Chaired by Britain’s former defence and trade secretary Lord John Hutton, Pearson Engineering has been the subject of several pro-Palestine protests since October 2023.

In December 2024, activists gathered outside the factory to highlight the presence of an Israeli state-owned factory in Britain.

Northumbria police officers rushed in “entirely unprovoked” and ordered people to move, according to Middle East Monitor.

A protester from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: “Individuals were dragged along the ground, pushed to the tarmac and grabbed around the throat by police officers”.

The site has also been hit by Palestine Action, with activists climbing onto the factory’s gatehouse earlier this year and dropping rubble in front of the gates to prevent access.

“The profits that they make, the money that they make here is funnelled into Rafael – an Israeli-owned weapons manufacturer”, declared one activist.

Rafael’s resources are also shared with its subsidiary. The company’s accounts for 2024 note “progress regarding the transfer of technology from Rafael into Pearson Engineering”, with a turnover of £79 million.

Bezalel Smotrich

Bezalel Smotrich, who oversees the same Israeli finance ministry which owns Pearson Engineering, was sanctioned by the UK government this week.

In a statement, the Foreign Office said Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have “incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights”.

It continued: “Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous. These actions are not acceptable”.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy has described Smotrich’s views as “monstrous”.

Smotrich has also claimed humanitarian aid is only being allowed into Gaza “so the world does not stop us and accuse us of war crimes”. Israel’s goal, he said, was to “conquer, clear, and stay” in Gaza.

And last year he argued that starving two million Gazans may be “moral… but no one in the world would let us”.

Smotrich is now subject to an asset freeze, travel ban, and director disqualification “in his personal capacity”, meaning the finance ministry that he oversees has been exempted from UK sanctions.

Palestine Action’s Huda Ammori told Declassified: “It seems convenient that the government imposed sanctions on the Israeli minister of finance, but not the ministry itself  – especially as the Israeli ministry of finance owns a weapons factory in Newcastle.

“The government is clearly attempting to protect the Israeli weapons industry and save face by imposing meaningless sanctions. The Israeli government, which is committing genocide, should not be able to own a weapons factory in England”.

 

https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-police-spent-thousands-protecting-israeli-arms-firm-linked-to-bezalel-smotrich/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.