https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgpxwy2lkwo
UK blocks Israeli government delegation from arms trade fair
29 August 2025
Bloomberg via Getty Images
A visitor tries a range of submachine guns at the DSEI 2023 exhibition in London
Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent
No Israeli government delegation will be invited to a global defence exhibition in London next month because of the Gaza war, the UK has said.
"The Israeli government's decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong," a UK government spokesperson said. "As a result, we can confirm that no Israeli government delegation will be invited to attend DSEI UK 2025."
Israel's defence ministry called the move a "deliberate and regrettable act of discrimination" and said it would be withdrawing and not setting up a national pavilion.
UK leaders have become more outspoken against Israel's conduct in Gaza, including a recent plan to expand the war and take over Gaza City.
"There must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now, with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza," the UK government spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.
Individual Israeli defence firms will still be allowed to exhibit at the trade show, which will take place from 9 to 12 September.
DSEI is Britain's flagship defence trade show – taking place every two years in London's Docklands – with hundreds of defence firms from all over the world exhibiting their military hardware and technology.
It is backed by the government, which also invites foreign officials to attend.
Israel's defence ministry said the UK's decision on this year's event "introduces political considerations wholly inappropriate for a professional defence industry exhibition".
But the ministry said Israeli industries that chose to participate would receive its "full support".
Liberal Democrats defence spokesperson Helen Maguire said the government was "sticking its head in the sand if it believes this is a substitute for banning arms exports to Israel".
"Anything less would be an utter dereliction of this government's duty to end the human catastrophe in Gaza," she said.
The BBC has contacted other opposition parties for comment.
DSEI is an opportunity to showcase a nation's defence industry, so governments will have stands to boost their own industry, even when most of that industry is run as a private enterprise.
Activist groups had already been planning to protest at DSEI this year.
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said while it welcomed the government's action, it criticised the move as "cowardly and symbolic".
"It was not the UK government that decided to pull the plug on the Israel country pavilion, but the Israeli government," the group's media coordinator Emily Apple said, adding the UK was still welcoming Israeli defence firms such as Elbit.
"This is the government pretending to take action while safeguarding the profits of arms dealers."
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in October 2023 in response to the Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostage back to Gaza. Currently, 48 hostages are still held there, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Israeli military actions in Gaza have since killed 62,966 people, including at least 18,592 children, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.
The UN has said Israel has restricted aid, and UN-backed experts have confirmed famine in Gaza City and its surrounding areas, with more than half a million people across Gaza facing conditions including starvation.
Israel, which controls entry of goods into the territory, has denied this report and defended its military operation as a fight against Hamas.
UK leaders have become increasingly critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza.
In May, the UK suspended talks on a trade deal with Israel, summoned the country's ambassador and imposed fresh sanctions on West Bank settlers, as Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the military escalation in Gaza "morally unjustifiable".
In recent months, Lammy said he was appalled and sickened by the plight of civilians in Gaza and called on Israel to allow "unhindered" aid into Gaza.
This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Israeli strikes on a hospital that killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, were "completely indefensible".
After the Labour Party came to power last year, it suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, but did not include parts for the F-35 jet, which the government said it could not prevent Israel from obtaining as they are sent to manufacturers worldwide.
These jets have been used extensively in Gaza.