Fight against UK arms sales to Israel persists

A case to halt UK arms sales was dismissed in February but has since been granted a judicial review

News Desk

APR 23, 2024

https://thecradle.co/articles/fight-against-uk-arms-sales-to-israel-persists

A legal obstacle to British weapons exports was reignited at the UK High Court on 23 April. 

The case, brought by Palestinian rights group Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), was dismissed in February. 

On Tuesday, 23 April, the case was granted an expedited judicial review of the UK government’s export license process, scheduled for the coming October. 

According to Al-Haq, there is a serious risk that weapons exported by the UK to Israel will be used in violation of international law, making their continued export illegal. 

In the court filings for Tuesday’s preliminary hearing on the matter, Al-Haq’s lawyers said the government processes for evaluating violations are “robust and detailed.” 

A lawyer for the Department for Business and Trade, James Eadie, said the processes have been “honed and refined” following cases previously brought by the Campaign Against Arms Trade over arms exports to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. 

“The world has watched as 34,000 people have been killed, and more are being killed every day. Over the weekend, a single strike in Rafah killed 17 children. The case for urgency has never been clearer,” said GLAN’s lawyer Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe. 

The UN has repeatedly warned in recent months that states exporting arms or military goods to Israel are at high risk of complicity in war crimes. Last month, Canada announced its intention to impose a ban on arms sales to Israel. Several countries, including Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, and Belgium, have taken similar steps.

At the start of March, over 200 MPs from 12 states signed a letter urging their governments to impose a ban on weapons sales to Israel. In the letter, organized by Progressive International and signed on 1 March, the MPs said they refused to be complicit in “Israel’s grave violation of international law” in Gaza.