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UK awarded contract to firm overseen by sanctioned Israeli
- John McEvoy | Declassified UK
- Feb 16
- 4 min read
Exclusive: £10 million deal signed with company linked to Bezalel Smotrich who is sanctioned by Britain
Britain’s defence ministry awarded a £10 million contract to an Israeli-owned arms firm which operates under the authority of sanctioned minister Bezalel Smotrich, Declassified can reveal.
Based in Newcastle, Pearson Engineering was acquired by Israel’s state-owned arms giant Rafael in 2022 and manufactures “mobility equipment to armed forces around the world”.
Financial records show the Government Companies Authority within Israel’s finance ministry has “significant control” over Pearson Engineering.
Smotrich, Israel’s minister of finance since 2022, was sanctioned by Britain last year in response to “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities”.
Last week, Smotrich declared that Israel is “burying the idea of a Palestinian state”.
Yet in August 2025, two months after Smotrich was sanctioned, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a contract with Pearson worth over £10m for “26 Track Width Mine Ploughs”.
The contract, which was awarded without any competition “for technical reasons”, allows the British army to replenish equipment used to remove land mines which had been gifted to Ukraine.
The revelation raises serious concerns about the scope and impact of Britain’s sanctions regime against Israeli officials.
The Foreign Office previously admitted that the sanctions on Smotrich and national security minister Ben Gvir were “carefully designed to minimise unintended consequences”.
Those sanctions were thus applied “in their personal capacities, and not to their ministries, departments or businesses owned or partially owned by the State of Israel”.
Jason Hussein, the vice chair of Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told Declassified: “While much of the world is distracted, Palestinians continue to be slaughtered in Gaza, despite an alleged ceasefire.
“Awarding a £10 million contract to a subsidiary of the Israeli state-owned Rafael is morally bankrupt, shameful, and undermines the UK’s sanctions on Smotrich.
“Civil society has made it clear for over two years: an arms embargo and enforceable sanctions are the only way to stop this rogue and genocidal state from carrying out further bloodshed”.
A spokesperson for the MoD commented: “We have robust processes in place to ensure all contracts are awarded fairly and transparently. All suppliers are subject to rigorous due diligence and must deliver value for money while complying with our security and legal obligations”.
Bezalel Smotrich
The revelation comes after Britain’s health secretary Wes Streeting published his private WhatsApp chats with the disgraced former diplomat Peter Mandelson.
In a message from last July, Streeting accused Israel of “rogue state behaviour”.
Streeting added: “Let them pay the price as pariahs with sanctions applied to the state, not just a few ministers”.
Despite the sanctions, Smotrich has continued to promote the illegal occupation of Palestinian land by Jewish settlers and incite genocide against Palestinians.
“We are deepening our roots in all parts of the Land of Israel and burying the idea of a Palestinian state”, Smotrich said in a statement last week.
He has previously declared: “Those around the world trying to recognise a Palestinian state will get our answer on the ground… Facts of homes, neighbourhoods, roads and Jewish families building their lives.”
Smotrich has also justified the starvation of two million Palestinians in Gaza, saying in August 2024 that “it may be just and moral” but “no one in the world would let us”.
Israel’s goal in Gaza, Smotrich claimed, was to “conquer, clear, and stay [there]”.
Pearson Engineering
Pearson’s directors include Nick Pope, the former deputy chief of the British army’s general staff, and Yoram Aron, Rafael’s managing director in the UK.
Another Pearson director, Lord John Hutton, was defence and trade secretary under New Labour. He was appointed as Pearson’s chair and non-executive director in 2022.
Hutton’s appointment came just weeks after Pearson had been taken over by Rafael as part of what the Israeli arms firm has called its “strategic expansion into the United Kingdom”.
Rafael was founded in 1948 under the Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF) Military Science Corps, and makes many of the missiles and drones that Israel is using to bomb Gaza.
Pearson Engineering has been targeted with several protests over the past two years due to its relationship with the Israeli state.
Declassified previously revealed that Northumbria police had spent £209,755 policing pro-Palestine protests at its factory as well as at the University of Newcastle between October 2023 and February 2025.
Hussein from Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: “Just as Northumbria police have acted as Rafael’s private security during protests outside the factory, the British government’s uncontested arms sales are directly facilitating Israel’s ongoing genocide”.
A spokesperson for Pearson Engineering told Declassified: “Pearson Engineering is a long-established UK company, and this contract supplied de-mining equipment to support regions affected by conflict.
“Our track width mine plough helps protect civilians and Allied Forces and is manufactured in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, creating skilled jobs and long-term careers in North East England. As a UK exporter, all Pearson Engineering products are fully licensed and regulated by the UK Government”.
(c) 2026, Declassified UK
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