Day 1: What happened in the UK High Court case over arms exports to Israel?
Amy Hall in London
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The UK government is being challenged in the High Court this week over a loophole allowing it to continue arms exports to Israel. A judicial review began in London today and is due to run until Friday.
The case comes as Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, including food and medical supplies, enters a tenth week. According to food security experts, Gaza is now at ‘critical risk’ of famine as Israel prepares to ramp up attacks.
In September last year the UK government suspended a number of licences for arms exports to Israel, but it made an exception for the export of components for the global F-35 programme, of which Israel is a customer.
This decision was made despite the government’s own conclusion that Israel was not committed to upholding international humanitarian law. But, it contended that it was not possible to suspend licensing F-35 components for use by Israel without wide impacts to the whole F-35 programme, which could in tern have a negative impact on ‘international peace and security’ and ‘undermine US confidence in the UK and NATO’.
In the arguments the government presented to the court ahead of this week’s case it stated that ‘the risks to international peace and security could not be outweighed’ by the risks to Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has been using F-35s in its bombardment of Gaza and they have been directly linked to attacks on so-called ‘safe zones’, including one which killed 90 people and injured 300 more in the Al-Mawasi camp, southern Gaza.
The judicial review has been brought by Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq and the Global Legal Action Network. They argue that the government’s decision on the F-35 ‘carve out’ was unlawful and want the UK to track and stop British made F-35 parts reaching Israel. They assert that the government has a duty to stop the sale of weapons to any state committing violations of international humanitarian law and to prevent genocide.
In its arguments to the court, the government recognized the duty to prevent genocide but argued that ‘there is a tenable view that no genocide has occurred or is occurring’.
At least 61,709 Palestinians, including 17,492 children, have been killed since October 2023.
Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq general director said: ‘The UK government remains utterly complicit in its ongoing arms sales to Israel, which, emboldened by impunity, has escalated its genocide against the Palestinian people through a manufactured famine, an announcement for the mass forcible transfer of Gaza's entire population, and plans to seize and annex Palestinian territory in Gaza.’The F-35 has been described by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) as ‘almost certainly the single largest and most important part of the UK arms trade with Israel.’
There have been similar legal cases in a number of the countries who are part of the F-35 programme, including Australia, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands.
— Amy Hall
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