uk Weapons sales to israel
GLAN and our Palestinian partners, human rights organisation Al-Haq are taking the UK government to court over weapons exports to Israel
Case Overview
GLAN and Al-Haq are taking the UK government to the High Court over continued weapons exports to Israel, despite the ongoing violations of international law and UK rules which demand an immediate halt of all export licences.
Current status: Final court hearing to be set in mid-January 2025 for later in the year. After our hearing at the High Court on 18 November GLAN and Al-Haq exposed several failures in the government’s decision-making over arms exports to Israel:
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During proceedings in our case, the government was forced to admit that “Israel is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law” by its own assessment.
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GLAN and Al-Haq can reveal the government waited 5 weeks to act on its own assessment (made on 24 July 2024) that UK weaponry were at risk of being used in serious violations of IHL and that exports should be suspended. Between 24 July and 2 September, at least 1,716 Palestinians were killed by Israel in Gaza, according to UNOCHA.
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In making their latest decision, the government weighed the harm to civilians in Palestine against the operation of the global F-35 programme; it chose political expediency over the lives of Palestinians. The government explicitly said, ‘The risk to the UK/US relationship’ was a key factor in deciding to continue with F-35 exports.
F-35 Exemption Decision
The government announced on 2nd September 2024 that they have partially suspended UK weapons exports to Israel, following emergency action by GLAN and Al-Haq. There are 30 export licences which have been suspended of 350 current export licences to Israel and aid this will not include component parts for the F-35 programme. We are continuing our fight for accountability and for a total suspension of all export licences to Israel.
GLAN and Al-Haq wrote to the government, informing it our intent to issue fresh proceedings seeking an order from the court requiring the exercise of the suspension mechanism, by way of urgent interim relief (similar to an injunction). The Government was required to respond to our letter by Tuesday 3 September at 4pm, but on Monday 2nd decided to instead partially suspend export licences to Israel. We are now fighting to ensure that all export licences, including the F-35 exemption, are halted.
We have now filed our extensive evidence with the High Court detailing the unlawful and unreliable use of torture derived information by Israel to justify attacks on medical personnel and facilities as well as aid workers, which undermines the UK's reliance on Israeli assurances in their response to our case.
On 13 June the court granted Oxfam GB, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International UK permission to intervene in support of our case.
>>> Read five things we learned from the renewal hearing in April.
Other Key Case Developments
CASE DOCUMENTS
Factual and Open-Source Evidence Updates submitted to Government in 2024:
- 3 April, Gaza situation update with Open Source Evidence (Contains some graphic content, partially redacted)
- 25 Mar. Gaza situation update
- 5 Mar. Gaza situation update
- 12 Feb. Gaza situation update
- 6 Feb. Gaza situation update
- 30 Jan. Gaza situation update
Case Documents:
(16 April 2024)
- Al-Haq 2nd skeleton submission (23 April 2024)
(April 2024)
(18 April 2024)
- Government Summary Grounds of Defence
- Al-Haq Summary of Facts and Grounds
Other documents:
- Media statement (April 2024)
- Summary of witness statements detailing Israeli torture (Aug. 24)
- JANUARY 2024: We are ensuring the UK government has knowledge of situation in Gaza: Since January 2024 we have submitted six factual updates on the situation in Gaza to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for the purposes of her ongoing assessment with respect to arms sales to Israel. These updates have been sent via the Government Legal Department, and in the context of ongoing litigation, which means the information contained within them can be taken to be legally within the Government’s knowledge.
- JANUARY 2024: Case documents reveal government hid 'serious concerns' over Israel which it did not share with parliament or the public. The UK government has responded to our case with Al-Haq confirming they did four 'risk assessments' from 7 October - 18 December which included writing to the government of Israel in November regarding a limited number of issues. Israel's response claims it is committed to complying with international law, however they declined to respond to specific incidents in the government's letter and gave no meaningful justification for restricting food, water & medical supplies to Gaza. The UK government has inexplicably accepted this inadequate response despite evidence of extensive violations of international law and Foreign Office's own advice stating “the volume of strikes, total death toll, as well as proportion of those who are children raise serious concerns”. Clearly this is unacceptable. The government's response does not address the core issues of the case and provide evidence that Israel is, in fact, complying with international law.
- MARCH 2024: We have requested disclosure of legal advice revealed in leaked recording: We wrote to the government to request that they confirm whether it is accurate that “the Foreign Office has received official legal advice that Israel has broken international humanitarian law,” per the leaked recording of Alicia Kearns MP. If that is the case, it is likely that in failing to disclose this material update in the context of ongoing litigation, the government will have breached its obligations to the court under the duty of candour.
- APRIL 2024: Gaza Open-Source Investigations: GLAN has been working on a soon-to-be-launched platform which brings together online social media evidence in an evidentiary format. We have submitted our investigations to the UK government in the form of factual updates described above. The genocide in Gaza is playing out on social media and it is the government’s obligation to scrutinise that in real time as well as focus on international NGOs and Israeli investigations.
- JULY 2024: We wrote to the new Labour government demanding they stop arms exports to Israel immediately.
- SEPTEMBER 2024: The government suspended around 30 export licenses for arms sales to Israel. This came immediately after GLAN and Al-Haq started the process of seeking an emergency court order (interim relief) for a complete stop to all UK arms export licences. The suspension includes all weapons that could be used in Gaza and the West Bank but crucially excludes the global F35 programme. This creates a loophole whereby parts may still be sent to Israel via other states in the prgramme.
Case Partner: Al-Haq
Al-Haq is an independent Palestinian non-governmental human rights organisation based in Ramallah, West Bank. Established in 1979 to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the organisation has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
“Colonialism and corporations have historically been intertwined. The situation in Palestine is no different. It is not surprising that Israeli and British interests converge in the ongoing devastation of Gaza. If the UK is ever going to break from its legacy of colonialism it cannot continue to support the ongoing colonization of Palestine. Halting arms sales now is the least it can do as a first step in this regard.”
- Wesam Ahmad, Head of Center for Applied International Law, Al-Haq
In October, we will be in court with Al-Haq, demanding that weapons sales to Israel are immediately stopped. We are urgently fundraising to bring a formidable team of lawyers who are gathering thousands of pieces of damning evidence proving that British weapons are being used to murder innocent civilians in Gaza. Support our urgent legal fight now.
CASE NEWS
Background
This case details that it is unlawful for the UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade to grant licences to export weapons to Israel because it is a breach of the Government’s own policy, the Export Licensing Criteria, which requires that licences won’t be granted if there a clear risk that weapons will be used to commit or facilitate serious breaches of international humanitarian law; or if it is inconsistent with the Arms Trade Treaty.
UK’s position
On 7 May 2024, then deputy foreign minister, Andrew Mitchell, said that an Israeli military offensive on Rafah would breach international humanitarian law. That offensive began on 6 May 2024.
Despite this, the government made three formal decisions to continue granting licences to sell weapons to Israel since 7 October 2023; on 18 December 2023, on 8 April 2024 and around 31 May 2024. In that time shehas approved more than 100 export licences to Israel, including 42 military licences and 66 licences for non-military equipment including telecommunications equipment and chemical manufacturing equipment, which could be used by Israel’s military. Five of the military licences were open licences, which allow unlimited deliveries of specified items and are usually valid for five years. A further 182 licences, including 27 open licences, are in progress.1 It has been reported2 that since 7 October 2023 Israel has dropped more than an estimated 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza, which exceeds the bombs dropped on Dresden, Hamburg and London during World War II, combined.