"UK government faces legal challenge over arms exports to Israel" 6 December 2023

The high court has been urged to intervene and suspend UK arms sales to Israel in a legal challenge launched on Wednesday.

The Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) have applied for a judicial review of the government’s export licences for the sale of British weapons capable of being used in Israel’s action in Gaza, which has killed more than 16,000 people – mostly civilians – since 7 October, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

Ahmed Abofoul, a lawyer at Al-Haq, said: “The UK has a legal and moral obligation to not grant licences for the sale of British weapons to regimes that commit atrocity crimes.”

The legal challenge comes as the international criminal court investigates Israel and Hamas for alleged war crimes, and after US rights groups sued the US president, Joe Biden, for “failure to prevent genocide” in Gaza last month.

Existing UK arms export criteria say that if there is a “clear risk” a weapon might be used in a serious violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) then an arms export should not be licensed.

Dearbhla Minogue, a senior lawyer at Glan, said: “There is a credible case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and that the government could be in breach of the Genocide Convention by not addressing it.”

UK Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “All our export licences are kept under careful and continual review and we are able to amend, suspend or revoke extant licences, or refuse new licence applications, where they are inconsistent with the UK’s strategic export licensing criteria.”