A case was brought against UK arms exports to Israel by Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq & the Global Legal Action Network, but High Court judges refused their case. @annastavrianakis.bsky.social explains why the government was taken to court. politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/why-the...

When peace and security mean arming genocide. @annastavrianakis.bsky.social, a Senior Lecturer in International Relations, explains why the UK government was taken to court over arms sales to Israel, and makes the case for a two-way arms embargo on Israel.

While the US & Europe ramp up military spending, millions live in poverty. Today, we launch Transition Security Project, investigating how militarisation makes us poorer and less safe amid climate crisis — and what genuine security could look like. 🧵 transitionsecurity.org

Today! I am delighted to be a fellow of the TSP - tune in to hear what the project is all about!

Why we need a two-way arms embargo on Israel: politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/why-the...

🎉 We are OPEN now for abstract, roundtable and panel submissions for #BISA2026 🎉 'Is International Studies ready for what comes next? New thinking, new directions' 🌎 Submit here! 👉 buff.ly/kK9oIlM @visitbrighton.bsky.social @simonrushton.bsky.social @julietdryden.bsky.social

And for our Italian-speaking friends! www.vignarca.net/2025/09/lett...

1/ 🧵 shadowworldinvestigations.org/statement-in... This letter, out today, has been endorsed by a number of experts listed by the Forum on the Arms Trade. The Forum itself does not take positions. Partial list of endorsers includes:

Hundreds and hundreds of protesters at the DSEI arms fair today, of all ages, races, genders and faiths, making their presence felt as the suited and booted, mostly male, mostly white delegates went for their big jolly - www.middleeasteye.net/news/protest...

Police have charged a further 46 more people with supporting the banned campaign group Palestine Action, bringing the total facing prosecution related to protests in London to 114.

Centrism isn't an obstacle to fascism or a bulwark against it. It's a welcome mat. There's no point telling people "It's Starmer or Farage" when the dynamic at work here is plainly Starmer *and* Farage. "Labour or Reform" makes as much sense at this point as "Vichy or the Third Reich".

NEW: The world’s largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide just voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution declaring that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. apnews.com/article/geno...

This made my day today. Police pulled over a dalek outside DSEI, London's arms fair, scanned the QR code on its lanyard and were taken to my fake Royal Navy recruitment website - royalnavy.org.uk

Excellent short read - especially pertinent as flags are going up in Brighton and, crucially, being taken down again by anti-fascists

Saturday afternoon be like 💪

Huge victory for public pressure on the British government as genocidal rogue state Israel pulls out in a huff from the DSEI arms fair. Campaigners that Netpol is speaking to say the next step is to close the entire event down with a blockade on 9 September www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Classic UK govt move: there is a useful fiction of the separation between arms companies and governments. So the UK gets to look like it did something good while materially enabling the bad stuff to happen and letting the Israeli govt cry wolf about how badly it’s treated.

Starmer's government bans Israeli officials but not Israeli arms companies. Says it all about Starmer.

3/ Poland notification is labeled as F-35. And the UK Globemaster notification comes after the courts there ruled to allow it to continue to provide parts into the F-35 pool (see @annastavrianakis.bsky.social for some background onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...) Might there be a connection?

This is the even darker dimension to Russia's pro-natalism push, including paying schoolgirls to have babies. Putin's Russia is obsessed with demographics and the composition of Russia's population. This demonstrates an intense focus on preventing Ukrainian society from growing.

I wrote a short, open-access account of how the High Court ended up accepting the UK govt's argument that protecting "international peace and security" means arming genocide in Palestine: please read and share - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Excellent taster of their new book - thank you Rafeef, Adam and Robert! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...

Perhaps, one day, schoolkids will study this squalid little chapter in British terror-panic history. When they do, I hope these two headlines from today are printed side by side, with clear annotation of which individual faced more outrage and condemnation.

The three best ideas I’ve had for how to organise my book have come when I’m 1) not sitting at the computer and 2) physically moving. Apparently the body isn’t just a receptacle for the brain.

Greek people blocking Israelis from leaving a cruise ship in Syros, Greece. People support Palestine governments support genocide

We have had a report saying two women walking up to a protest today at BAe Samlesbury were stopped by Lancashire Police and advised to remove their t-shirts that say 'Free Palestine', as it may "breach the proscription order". And so it begins.

OK @pcsunion.bsky.social members in the Home Office, let's go! "Are they really going to prosecute as terrorists everyone who expresses support for Palestine Action’s work to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel as it commits war crimes?" Time to get organised! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

not so fast, Yvette - palestineaction.org/urgent-heari...

Just so we’re clear: UK arming Israel’s genocide is legal but trying to stop it is a terrorist offence and now the BBC is equating the IDF with all Jewish people and accusing artists of anti semitism.

Terrible day for justice: the High Court has ruled against Al Haq in the judicial review of UK arms exports to Israel. 3 main types of reasoning: 1) that some of the issues are non-justiciable ie can't be adjudicated in a UK court of law. So what is the point of export controls?/

Get online at 10:30 to see if UK arms sales to Israel are deemed legal or not by the High Court: www.middleeasteye.net/news/high-co... - link for where to see the news in the article

Palestine Action ban: what will it mean in practice? Our guide covers what won't be allowed after the ban comes into force. Counter-terror powers are used in an overtly racist & Islamophobic way- the policing situation is likely to be unstable once it's in force. netpol.org/2025/06/26/p...

You have 48 hours to get your free e-copy of Monstrous Anger of the Guns, the @shadowworldinv1.bsky.social book about how the arms trade is ruining the world and what we can do about it! www.plutobooks.com/978074535036...

1/ NEW: Airwars finds Operation Rough Rider nearly doubled U.S. civilian casualty toll in Yemen trump-yemen.airwars.org/operation-ro...

Oh hey Christian Turner i also have some recommendations. Seeing as “It is the political director’s job to engage with a range of voices across multiple issues to ensure informed policy making” I am sure your staff will be in touch for an appointment asap

“The dream of returning home or simply the possibility to end a decade of exile is suddenly within reach. But this dream now comes with existential, practical and legal questions.” Charlotte Al-Khalili and @melissagatter.bsky.social for @theconversation.com. theconversation.com/syria-after-...

Don't let the UK govt's confected outrage distract you from the key thing it could do to stop the carnage in Palestine: halt all military collaboration with and arms sales to/from Israel - thanks to @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social for hosting my piece - www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-r...

'I just don't buy it.' Professor Anna Stavrianakis of @shadowworldinv1.bsky.social criticizes the UK government's position that it can't track parts for its F-35 programme with Israel. Sign up to our Currents newsletter for more from this week's hearing 👉 a.nin.tl/3x

Join us June 13th with @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social @ahmedalnaouq.bsky.social @franceskalbs.bsky.social @andrewfeinstein.bsky.social @tninstitute.bsky.social to discuss how we can break the downward spiral of militarisation, skyrocketing arms exports, and unaccountability for war crimes & genocide. 1/2

Every day I learn something new about the casual brutality of Israel's assault on Palestinians. Today it's that Israel is the first air force to use F-35 fighter jets in "beast mode", allowing it to carry more & heavier bombs. I can just imagine the dudes coming up with the name.

Today I'm mostly drafting an op-ed piece about arms sales to Israel. Will share a link once it's up. But for now, leaving here that it was initially pitched to the Guardian and the Independent but apparently it's not a theme they are looking for at the moment. Cos, you know, nothing to see here...

BBC reports that "UK suspends Israel trade talks and summons ambassador over 'intolerable' Gaza offensive" - I look forward to a forthcoming announcement of an immediate suspension of all arms export licences, which would materially halt Israel's offensive

Just the Labour govt licensing more arms to Israel October to December 2024 than the Tories did in 2020-2023 combined... Mostly military radars, components, software, targeting equipment - and granted after the announcement of a temporary arms suspension on 2 Sept 2024: caat.org.uk/news/new-fig...

Over 700 (!!) faculty and staff in Swedish higher education & research have declared their conscientious objection to collaborate with Israeli institutions complicit in illegal occupation, apartheid, genocide, and other violations of international law. Ps: ppl can still sign!!

KCL UCU sends its solidarity to the students who have, since Monday evening, re-occupied King’s Strand campus quad to protest our university’s continued complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and oppression of the Palestinian people. Our full statement ➡️ docs.google.com/document/d/1...

1/ US-Saudi arms factsheet updated to include yesterday's announcement of $142 billion agreement. More details needed on what this could really entail, but see www.forumarmstrade.org/us-saudi-arm... and White House factsheet www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

Edited by Laura Kasinof and published by Comma Press in April, this brand new anthology presents ten short stories by Yemeni writers, which unfold in one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Sanaa 👇

It’s hard to overstate this: the govt is saying that “the alleged damage to international peace and security” that suspending F35 parts might have was “a matter of such gravity … that it would have overridden” any serious breaches of IHL in Gaza