Twelve anti-war protesters were arrested by police on Monday after campaigners boarded a plane at Prestwick airport in Scotland to search for United States weapons being transported to Israel.
David Mackenzie, of the campaign group Trident Ploughshares, said its activists boarded a US plane at the airport after gaining access to it by cutting through a perimeter fence.
They found the military area and a US plane with its door open. However, they did not find any weapons.
One protester was sitting in the pilot’s seat when police arrived.
Mackenzie said: ”We’ve been told that Prestwick is no longer being used by the US military to transport hazardous materials, but we suspect that this is not true. Unless citizens take it into their own hands to find out what’s going on, then no one will really know.”
Strathclyde police said no damage was done during what the force described as a peaceful protest.
The British Foreign Office has said that US military planes bound for Israel could land at British airfields ”as long as the proper procedures are followed”.
Aircraft suspected of carrying US weapons to Israel have been spotted at military airfields, including the US base at Mildenhall in Suffolk and Royal Air Force Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
The Civil Aviation Authority, which is responsible for monitoring transit flights through civilian airports, said it gave permission for the two US flights to stop at Prestwick last month but no others.
”We have not issued permission for the carriage of any dangerous cargo to Israel,” a spokesperson said.
The use of Prestwick by weapons flights has also been condemned by politicians and members of the Lebanese community living in Scotland.
Further illustration of the concern inside the Labour party emerged on Monday with the publication of a survey by the Ceasefire Today pressure group. More than 200 MPs, including 119 Labour MPs, ”support an immediate ceasefire”, the survey said.
They include Nigel Griffiths, the deputy leader of the Commons who is close to the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and Paul Clark, parliamentary aide to the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. Other signatories include Ann Clywd, chairperson of the parliamentary party, and the former ministers Clare Short, Sir Gerald Kaufman, Geoffrey Robinson, Angela Eagle, Elliot Morley and Michael Meacher. — Guardian Unlimited Â