Is the UK one step closer to ending arms sales to Israel?

A legal challenge by Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), could be pushing the British government one step closer to restricting arms sales to Israel. The High Court has allowed a full hearing for the case, proposed for May 2025. The focus will be the government’s decision to keep supplying parts for F-35 stealth fighter aircraft to Israel, despite suspending 30 of its 350 licenses allowing arms exports to Israel in September 2024.

The court will also look at the British government’s decision to keep supplying equipment to Israel, despite finding that Israel is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law.

Last week’s judgment noted that in making the decision on the F-35 ‘carve out’, the government was balancing the risk that jets containing UK supplied components might commit serious human rights violations in Gaza against fears around damaging national and international security by disrupting the F-35 supply chain – with the latter coming out on top.

Campaigners have accused the government of putting international relations – and arms company profits – above its obligations to protect human rights.

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’. A number of countries are involved in its production, with the UK providing 15 percent of the supply’s value. UK parts used in F-35s delivered to Israel so far are thought to be worth at least $468 million, according to CAAT.

Meanwhile, the genocide in Gaza is now known to have killed nearly 62,000 people. As people return to the rubble of their homes in the north, Israel’s violence against Palestinians has not stopped. Days after the ceasefire in Gaza was agreed, Israel launched its ‘Iron Wall’ campaign on the city of Jenin, and the neighbouring refugee camp, in the West Bank. During this operation alone at least 20 people have been killed, including children.

Israel is able to continue its campaign of destruction thanks to the international support it receives, including in the form of arms exports.

‘Gaza is destroyed, it is unliveable,’ said Al-Haq director, Shawan Jabarin. ‘Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and erased by weapons whose components are supplied to Israel by the UK Government, acting in full knowledge of the consequences.’

— Amy Hall in Brighton, UK (@amyrhall)