In the interests of British imperialism, the British state and British corporations have spent millions of pounds, provided arms and police training, to aid governments in the Middle East in upholding the Zionist state. LUCCA ORFEU reports.
Gaza and the West Bank
Managed jointly by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Foreign Office, the ‘Capability, Accountability, Sustainability, and Inclusivity Programme’ (CASIP) provides support to the internal security forces of the Palestinian Authority (PA) – the acting government in the West Bank – and intends to build the capacity of Palestinian security to emphasise ‘security cooperation with Israel.’ This costs £3.3m a year and is set to last until 2022. The PA acts as a security subcontractor for the Zionist occupation. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the PA since 2005 has previously said that ‘security coordination [with Israel] is sacred and will continue whether we agree or disagree on policy.’ British projects supporting Palestinian security forces are focused towards stopping threats to Israel rather than Palestinian state-building.
Often, the PA’s forces have tried to disrupt demonstrations at the Israeli checkpoints and settlements in the West Bank – even cracking down on Abbas’ political rivals (with guidance from MI6). In the recent demonstrations in the cities of the West Bank, PA security forces were seen trying to disperse protesters in Jenin. Despite this, Britain’s project – funded from its official inter-governmental ‘Conflict, Security, and Stability Fund’ (CSSF), seeks to improve the image of the PA within the country by targeting ‘perceptions of corruption.’ A parliamentary committee has compared the CSSF to a ‘slush fund’ that finances projects that do not ‘meet the needs of UK national security’.
Even Human Rights Watch has called upon the international community to withhold and suspend its support for PA security units, which they repeatedly and fervently accuse of detaining journalists and torturing activists. Another British Aid project, costing £138m, focuses on expanding the PA’s capacity to ‘help reduce the potential for extremist groups to capitalise on a security vacuum’: to crack down on armed Palestinian resistance.
Jordan and Lebanon
In May we saw thousands of Palestinian refugees in Jordan attempting to cross the border back into Palestine to join protests against the racist expulsions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. The Jordanian police met them with tear gas and firing their weapons into the air. Pictures taken at the demonstration show that the Darak, the public security forces of Jordan, was deployed to stifle the protest. Between 2016 and 2020 Darak received intelligence training and ‘protection of critical infrastructure’ funded by the UK through another CSSF programme worth roughly £5m a year. Armoured vehicles for the Darak have been manufactured in the Jordan area, aided by Jankel – a British arms company based in Surrey. Some of these same vehicles have been supplied to PA security forces.
Alongside all of this, the UK also spends at least £18.5m on ‘security and stability’ programmes in Lebanon, in part to attempt to ‘instil responsibility amongst those living within the Palestinian camps’ – these were described as ‘volatile communities.’ Upwards of 300,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, and many in dire poverty. This ‘security programme’ is, unsurprisingly, run by the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office.
A section of the ‘community policing’ training for the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) has been provided by Northern Ireland Co-operation Overseas (NI-CO) – a state-owned company with access to officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Since this training, Human Rights Watch has persisted in accusing the ISF of using excessive force against anti-austerity protesters in the capital, Beirut. Last August, more than 700 people were injured by live ammunition and birdshot. Hezbollah, a Lebanese political and military group, is popular amongst the Palestinian refugee population of the country, and the Western funding for Lebanese security forces is partly meant to counter Hezbollah’s influence, particularly among Palestinian refugees.
Britain is active on all fronts to maintain the Zionist state and crush any resistance to it. British imperialism out of the Middle East!
