LONDON– A legal challenge over the British government’s role in allowing weapons to be sent to Israel may be heard at the High Court later this year, a judge said on Tuesday.
The Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network filed the challenge in December, calling on the UK to stop granting licenses for arms exports to Israel. They said they acted after the British government ignored their written requests to suspend arms sales to Israel following the deadly Oct. 1 attack. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war between Israel and Hamas.
The case had been dismissed in February, but a Superior Court judge on Tuesday granted a judicial review hearing in October.
Lawyers for the human rights groups argued that there was a “clear risk” that the weapons “could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law” in Gaza.
But lawyer James Eadie, representing the UK Department of Business and Trade, said the issue was being considered “with remarkable care and thoroughness”.
“The Secretary of State’s position is that these decisions have at all times been lawful and, in particular, rational,” he said in a written submission.
Human rights groups have long opposed British arms exports to Israel, but those calls have gained ground since an Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen charity on April 1. Three of the aid workers were British.
Earlier this month, more than 600 British lawyers and judges, including three retired UK Supreme Court judges, joined calls for the government to suspend arms sales to Israel.
They said the UK could be complicit in “serious violations of international law” if it continues to send weapons, and that it is legally obliged to heed the International Court of Justice’s conclusion that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza. .
The non-profit group Campaign Against the Arms Trade says that British industry, specifically BAE Systems, provides around 15% of the components for the F-35 stealth fighter jet used by Israel. The group alleges that the planes were used in the recent bombings of Gaza.
“The UK government has taken legal reasoning to the point of absurdity to arm a country that is committing serious violations of international humanitarian law,” said Dearbhla Minogue, a lawyer with the Global Legal Action Network.
“The government appears to be making this process as slow as possible,” Minogue added. “Given the urgency of the situation in Gaza, the government should listen to the international legal consensus and stop arms sales now.”