UK suspends trade talks as hearing reveals government's ‘flawed’ assessment of genocide in Gaza in effort to keep arms flowing to Israel

• The UK government’s long held claim it is for ‘competent court’ not parliament, to assess genocide, was contradicted in Court last week as the government revealed that it has assessed there is ‘no serious risk of genocide’ occurring in Gaza

• Government described global standard for assessment of IHL breaches as “touchy feely”

• Claimed not to have seen women and children deliberately targeted in Gaza, despite evidence presented in Court, and withheld a report specifically on the sniping of children

• Government’s assessment methods in question after finding only ‘one possible’ breach of IHL among tens-of thousands of airstrikes in Gaza across an 11-month period

  
  

On Friday 16 May, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Al-Haq’s landmark challenge over the government’s decision to continue supplying F-35 parts to Israel concluded at the High Court.

The four-day hearing has exposed structural flaws in accountability in the UK’s arms export control regime, which GLAN and Al-Haq argue renders it unfit to ensure respect for fundamental legal and humanitarian obligations.

In Parliament, the government has maintained its claim that it is for the courts to decide whether Britain is complying with its legal obligations. Yet simultaneously in court, their lawyers argued the opposite — they say that such matters are not for the judiciary to examine. Despite this, the government’s lawyers rejected Al-Haq's assertion that there is at least a serious risk that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and said there is "a tenable view that no genocide has occurred or is occurring". The court heard that though the government accepted that "conduct which could, in principle, satisfy the physical component of genocide continues to take place in Gaza" - they believe the Israeli government has showed no intent to commit genocide. They maintain this position despite GLAN and Al-Haq having filed over 100 pages of statements by Israeli officials demonstrating this intent, and despite the government publicly condemning “the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli Government.”

In the last week, 65 MPs from nine political parties signed a joint letter, calling on the government to disclose their latest genocide risk assessments on Gaza over concerns of the adequacy of their methodology. The letter notes that the only disclosure on government decision making has been made available to parliament via this legal case.

The government also claimed it had seen “no deliberate targeting of women and children”, and therefore “no serious risk of genocide”. In the 19 months since the challenge was brought, the UK government had been provided in court with evidence including of young children being sniped in the head and the heart, of a grandmother being sniped whilst walking with her 5 year old grandson who was carrying a white flag, of tanks crushing civilians, and of Gaza’s entire healthcare system having been methodically dismantled. The government also had in its own evidence a report titled “Research Report: Long-Range Shootings or Shootings of Minors.” This report was withheld from GLAN and Al-Haq, despite a duty to disclose and an explicit request made for its disclosure.

Disturbingly the UK government also claimed in court Israel’s targeting policies were as good as the UK’s.

Internationally accepted arguments relating to breaches of the Genocide Convention, in context of the enormous harms suffered by civilians in Gaza, were callously dismissed by the government’s lawyers as “touchy feely”.

The government gave evidence to support what it claims is a rigorous process for decision making on weapons exports. In court they admitted being aware that Israel’s “tempo of killings” was “so overwhelming”, OHCHR was unable to produce daily reporting – and that Israel had stated it had carried out 10,000 strikes on Gaza in the first two months of its assault alone. Yet when assessing an 11-month period, from October 2023 to the start of September 2024, the government examined just 413 incidents and determined only one as a possible breach of international law. The only possible breach was the one incident in which foreign aid workers at World Central Kitchen were pursued and killed by drones.

GLAN and Al-Haq argue that the government’s methodology is deeply flawed, including wrongly assessing Israel’s conduct of hostilities on an incident-by-incident basis, not assessing overall patterns, such as repeated attacks on hospitals and repeated mass population transfer orders issued by Israel. The government proceeded on the basis that it needed incident-specific evidence from Israel, even if Israel was not willing to provide such evidence. This methodology led to perverse findings where the government would not find even ‘possible breaches’ in the face of catastrophic loss of life and conclusive findings by UN bodies, unless Israel had agreed to give it information about specific strikes. GLAN and Al-Haq also argue that the government failed to properly consider UN assessments over Israel’s breaches of IHL, and that it failed to factor in Israel’s longstanding historical non-compliance with IHL, which had resulted in previous suspensions of arms to Israel by the UK.

Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, lawyer at GLAN said: "The government has been telling Parliament that it is unable to answer questions regarding its decision to indirectly arm Israel because that decision is being tested in the courts, and at the same time telling the judiciary that it cannot examine that decision because that is the role of Parliament. All of this is happening in the context of Israel's ever-escalating efforts to annihilate the Palestinian people. The UN's humanitarian chief has warned that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in the next 48 hours without aid. Will nothing move this government to act?"

Gearóid Ó Cuinn, Director of the Global Legal Action Network said: “The government has now been exposed as being disingenuous in Parliament and in court; this merry-go-round of delay and inaction is facilitating genocide and needs to stop. A decision in our case will come far too late for the people of Gaza who are being starved to death – the government must immediately end arms sales and other forms of military support to Israel and apply sanctions.”

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