More than 300 figures from the arts, media and academia have written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer urging an immediate freeze on UK arms exports to Israel and fresh efforts toward a Gaza cease-fire. Signatories to the open letter, organised by the refugee charity Choose Love, include Benedict Cumberbatch, Dua Lipa, Riz Ahmed, Gary Lineker and singer Annie Lennox, along with Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos. “The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute,” they write, warning that continued licences leave Britain “complicit” in civilian deaths.
The appeal arrives as pressure mounts on Whitehall over its weapons policy. In September 2024 the government suspended about 30 export licences on the grounds that equipment could breach humanitarian law, yet it maintained supplies of F-35 jet components, citing security commitments. A Palestinian rights group is challenging that exemption in London’s High Court, arguing the carve-out violates Britain’s legal duties.
Starmer told MPs last week that suffering in Gaza is “intolerable” and that Israel’s limited aid access is “utterly inadequate.” Foreign Secretary David Lammy has since halted trade talks with Israel and sanctioned extremist West Bank settlers, describing the Rafah offensive as “morally unjustifiable.” A government spokesperson says all licences are kept under constant review and must meet strict criteria aligned with international law.
The letter follows similar interventions: this week 380 authors labelled the war “genocide,” while a coalition of senior lawyers asked ministers to impose wider sanctions. Choose Love’s campaign underscores growing public activism that began with the Artists4Ceasefire movement and the red pins seen on recent awards-season red carpets.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to UN-cited figures, and displaced millions; Hamas’s 7 October attack left around 1,200 Israelis dead. Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies report acute child malnutrition amid restrictions on food and medicine. The letter concludes by calling on Downing Street to open uninterrupted aid corridors and broker an immediate cease-fire “for the sake of every civilian caught in the cross-fire.”
