An Israeli tank prepares to invade Lebanon. (Photo: Baz Ratner / Alamy)
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has rejected a freedom of information request that would shed light on training it is providing to Israeli armed forces personnel in Britain.
The refusal comes as Israeli forces invade southern Lebanon, sparking a major new crisis in the Middle East.
The rejection is the first sign that Keir Starmer’s new Labour government has adopted the Conservative’s secretive approach towards the training.
Last February, the MoD admitted in answer to a parliamentary question that there were six Israeli military officers posted in the UK.
It said that “Israel is represented by Armed Forces personnel in its Embassy in the UK, and as participants in UK defence-led training courses”.
Asked in parliament in May for details of those training courses, a UK defence minister said: “This information is being withheld in order to protect personal information and to avoid prejudicing relations between the United Kingdom and another State”.
The freedom of information request asked: “Which ‘defence-led training courses’ Israeli armed forces personnel in Britain are currently undertaking and the location of these courses.”
In response, the MoD accepted that “all the information” in the scope of this request “is held”.
However, it refused to disclose details in order to “protect personal information” and “because some of the information has the potential to adversely affect relations with our allies”. This is clearly a reference to Israel.
Information blackout
The UK MoD’s willingness to protect its alliance with Israel will surely come under further scrutiny as Israeli ground forces invade Lebanon.
It is not clear if the British training is significantly aiding those forces in combat operations.
More than one million people have been displaced in Lebanon since Israel escalated airstrikes on its neighbour last month, killing hundreds of people.
The training of Israeli forces in Britain is taking place at a time when the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, along with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is wanted by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor for war crimes.
The Labour government appears to be continuing to impose a blackout on providing much information to the public and parliament about its support for Israel as it continues its mass attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.
The previous British government refused to provide information about the Israeli military aircraft that have recently landed in Britain. It also failed to provide details about the dozens of Royal Air Force flights that have gone to Israel in recent months.
The reason for the information blackout is possibly to protect British ministers from being prosecuted for complicity in war crimes.
As far as Declassified is aware, the UK government’s admission that it is training Israeli forces in Britain has not been mentioned in the UK national media.
Freedom of information requests about British training of foreign countries, including Israel, used to be routinely answered by the MoD prior to the conflict in Gaza.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Curtis is the director of Declassified UK, and the author of five books and many articles on UK foreign policy.
In this regard I am reminded that a friend commented to me several months ago in May/June that they had observed a group of approximately 8-10 young fit men walking down the high street of Builth Wells at about 8:30am.
This was highly unusual. The friend said that they appeared to be soldiers dressed in civilian clothing who stood out like sore thumbs. They would know, with family and friends who had served in the British forces.
We both immediately thought of the Epynt (pronounced as ‘ep ant’) which is a highly secure military training centre not far from Builth Wells. When you drive within range of the centre there are huge DANGER and warning signs everywhere, including atop rugged hills where one yearns to stand and gaze at the far-reaching views
Information about the UK’s third largest military training centre is pretty thin on the ground such that I had to resort to Wikipedia for the following simple overview.
Sennybridge Training Area (SENTA) is a UK Ministry of Defence military training area near the village of Sennybridge in Powys, Wales. It consists of approximately 12,545 ha (31,000 acres) of Ministry of Defence freehold land and 2,428 ha (6,000 acres) of land leased from Forest Enterprise.[2]
The training area is the third largest military training area in the United Kingdom.[1] It covers 19 km (12 mi) south west to north east and 8 km (5 mi) south east to north west.[1] It lies to the north of the Brecon Beacons National Park on Mynydd Epynt.[3] The site was acquired by the War Office in 1939.[4]
In 2023 a driver for the British military died on Sennybridge Training Area.[5]
This relatively recent article published by The Sun provides some background information about how the village of Mynydd Eppynt was forcefully transformed into a military training centre by the British state during WWII.
IT was once a thriving farming community home to a few hundred men, women and children.
But after residents received a terrifying letter ordering them to be out in a matter of months, the village of Mynydd Epynt in Powys, mid-Wales, quickly became a ghost town.
The village of Mynydd Epynt was a thriving farming community until World War II
Gravestones at Capel y Babell bear the names of those who once lived there
Credit: Graham Horn/Creative Commons
Families fled overnight, leaving traces of their quiet lives behind in the hope they might one day return.
Others abandoned all hope entirely, with one woman reportedly taking off with her front door.
However each of the 219 locals felt, just four months after being handed eviction notices in late December 1939, the land they once called home was deserted.
And by June 1940, the area officially became the Sennybridge Training Area - or SENTA.
The school and chapel closed, hedges were torn down, and military training operations began.
The Ministry of Defence, then the War Office, said the move was vital to support World War II efforts, but it left many with nowhere to go.
Elwyn Davies, who was just 10 at the time, described the fear his grandmother felt when she was forced out.
He told agricultural organisation NFU Cymru: "It was a very sombre time.
It was war time, and there weren’t many options locally.
"Just a week after [my grandmother] left, they flattened her house. They flattened everything."
It is understood an Army officer visited Mynydd Epynt in September 1939 to confirm its potential for combat exercises.
He apparently quickly realised it fit the bill, and letters dropped through letterboxes telling residents they were being booted out.
Many are said to have believed the repurposing of the land was temporary, leaving locks in doors and ploughing fields in preparation for their return.
But sadly almost all of the original buildings were destroyed during the clearance, and before the war ended.
7
Mynydd Epynt continued to be used for artillery practice in the years that followed.
And today, the 30,000 acres is still owned by the MoD.
It is now one of the largest military training zones in the UK, with little left to show for the community that once lived there.
Yellow signs warning of the potential "danger" the land hides now stand where farm animals once grazed.
One reads: "Do not touch any military debris. It may explode and kill you."
There is, however, a small mock village in the Cilieni Valley and the old pub, The Drovers Arms Inn in a nod to those who lived there 83 years ago.
7A plaque on the site of Capel y Babell - the main community site until 1940 Credit: Graham Horn/Creative Commons
7Ponies graze on high moorland in the Mynydd Epynt range in Powys Credit: Alamy Live News
7Snow covering the land of the Mynydd Epynt range Credit: Alamy Live News
7A blanket of snow at Builth Wells, Powys, in 2017Credit: Alamy Live News
Please also see these other articles published by Declassified UK with regard to the complicity of the US and UK in aiding and abetting war crimes that have been and continue to be committed by Israel.
Shameless military cooperation which appears to go both ways. Are Brits training Israelis or are Israelis training Brits? Some tactics employed by Brit cops in recent years would suggest that we are all treated as Palestinians now.
It's all so sordid. I don't know how many UK people know of arrest warrants or our government involvement either. Those who follow Yaxley would be cheering now.
Shameless military cooperation which appears to go both ways. Are Brits training Israelis or are Israelis training Brits? Some tactics employed by Brit cops in recent years would suggest that we are all treated as Palestinians now.
It's all so sordid. I don't know how many UK people know of arrest warrants or our government involvement either. Those who follow Yaxley would be cheering now.