Britain’s decision to bar Israeli officials from its flagship arms fair is a welcome step towards holding states accountable for violations of international humanitarian law.

In the DSEI the reminder of what weapons can do – shatter families, destroy towns, kill children – was absent. We see its final product in the ruins of Gaza and Homs and Mariupol. But at the moment of sale, there are no children pleading for peace. And this, in the end, is how the arms trade is able to live with itself.

The world’s largest arms fair promises peace in the world