Nearly 200 Israeli citizens in the UK call on government to suspend trade with Israel

Around 200 Israeli citizens living in the UK have written to the British government demanding it suspend its trade relations with Israel until the country lifts its total siege on Gaza.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, the group, many of whom hold British citizenship, called on the government to suspend the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement (TPA )-  a deal which covers trade of goods, services and preferential tariffs and quotas.

“We are watching in horror the images coming from Gaza of malnourished babies and children,” the letter read, noting that the siege has barred any aid from entering the Strip for over two months.

The signatories warned Starmer and Lammy "not to be complicit in criminal mass starvation".

“Pleading with Netanyahu's rogue government will not do. The prospect of mass starvation in Gaza is imminent and intolerable. The UK must take immediate and concrete measures to stop this catastrophe before it gets any worse,” it added.

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Gaza’s government media office warned on 4 May that over 3,500 children below the age of five years in the enclave “face imminent death by starvation”.

The trade agreement was signed in February 2019, after the UK left the EU, under the terms negotiated by the EU. 

The relationship is estimated to be worth around £7bn ($9.36 bn) per annum.

The two countries have been trying to establish a new free trade agreement since 2022 which would expand on the TPA and focus on services and technology.

Rights group Amnesty International raised the alarm about the human rights concerns of the prospective deal and the risk of UK complicity in Israel’s violations of international law.

In March 2023, the two countries signed a long-term agreement to deepen ties in the fields of defence, security and technology, which many critcised as tacit approval for Israel’s far-right government and its settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

Despite facing calls to curtail its trade relations with Israel amid its ongoing war on Gaza, the Labour government has continued  former Conservative government policies and sought to bolster its ties with the state.

Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has embarked on fresh trade talks with Tel Aviv.

In March 2025, the UK trade commissioner for Europe, Chris Barton, visited Tel Aviv and Jerusalem “to discuss a range of trade matters".

Another UK trade official, James Clarke, visited on 4 and 5 of February, according to responses to freedom of information (FOI) requests.

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