Legal and human rights groups, Al-Haq and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), have filed a legal challenge in the UK’s High Court, demanding the government to discontinue granting licenses for weapons exports to Israel. The proceedings were announced on Thursday.
Al-Haq is a Palestinian independent NGO focused on protecting human rights and the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, while GLAN is a UK-based NGO working towards challenging states and other powerful entities involved in human rights violations. In coalition, the organizations have brought forth a lawsuit against the UK citing “grave breaches of international law and UK rules repeatedly ignored” with the objective to suspend arms sales to Israel.
The justifications from the NGOs take into account the documented attacks on Palestinian civilians by Israel reported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), including indiscriminate attacks on civilians and the destruction of infrastructure critical to their survival such as hospitals, schools, and bakeries. The legal submission also refers to the UK government’s Strategic Licensing Criteria, that disallows arms exports when there is a risk of undermining peace and security.
The international Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has also publicly supported Al-Haq in their cause with a statement reading:
“We are not prepared to stand by while the UK government supplies weapons to a State that is engaged in the purposeful killing of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
We will work to protect British people and British tax payers money which should never be spent on weapons used to kill the innocent.
We will act to directly prevent a rogue UK government becoming complicit in war crimes.”
The UK was previously criticized by the Campaign Against Arms Trade for its arms supply to Israel during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. These claims state that the UK is “complicit in these crimes not just by supplying these weapons for decades, but by repeatedly inciting Israel to commit war crimes against Palestinian civilians with impunity”.
The UK government has, however, been a long-standing supporter of Israel and has reaffirmed their support of Israel’s right to defend itself following the attacks of October 7 by Hamas. The UK voted against two Russian-led resolutions calling for a humanitarian pause in October.
If there is any respite, it is due to the grave situation prompting the UN Secretary-General António Guterres to invoke the rarely-used Article 99 of the UN Charter, attempting to force an end to the ongoing conflict.