Claims by a high-profile protest group that arms factory EDO supplied the Israeli air force are not confirmed by official records, an information watchdog ruled.

An independent panel rejected a request for all export licences obtained or applied for by the Moulsecoomb-based company to be published, saying they would not prove the firm had lied by denying it was involved in supplying Israel.

The decision became public as campaigners Smash EDO - who want to close the factory down - announced a mass demonstration in January to mark the anniversary of the end of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Arms campaignter Ceri Gibbons had asked the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) for all applications made and licences issued for EDO to export goods to Israel and the USA between 2000 and 2007.

In particular the 41-year-old wanted information about "ejector release units" (ERU151) and "zero retention force arming units" (ZRFAU), which are used in bomb racks in F-16 combat aircraft.

The BIS refused the information request, saying the licences were confidential, but confirmed EDO had made applications for export licences for the parts.

Mr Gibbons appealed to the Information Commissioner, then an Information Tribunal, claiming it was in the public interest to publish the department’s records if they showed EDO representatives had lied at court hearings about exports to Israel.

In May managing director Paul Hills told The Argus: “I would and have stood up in court and sworn under oath that we don’t supply to Israel, which is one of the things Smash EDO accuse us of. “ The tribunal concluded: “There was no dispute that the ERU151 and the ZRFAU are components which can be incorporated into VER-2 bomb racks for use with F-16 combat aircraft, that those aircraft are used by the Israeli air force, and that from 1998 EDO owned the right to manufacture the ERU151 and the ZRFAU.”

The panel held a closed session to quiz a BIS civil servant about the confidential information and examined copies of all the export licences Mr Gibbons had requested.

After examining the documents, it concluded the information did not confirm Mr Gibbons’s claims that EDO supplied Israel and should remain confidential.

It said: “Having conducted that exercise we are satisfied, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, that nothing in the disputed information provides support for any of Mr Gibbons's allegations.

“Mr Gibbons's case therefore fails on the facts.“ After the conclusions were made public, Mr Gibbons, 41, pledged to press other Government departments for information that could confirm his claims.

He said: “I ended up in the position where it is quite possible that the documents held by the BIS don’t prove anything conclusively but there could still be stuff there which points to the facts.

“It doesn’t prove they haven’t done it, it doesn’t prove they have done it."

No-one from EDO was available to comment on the tribunal’s decision yesterday.