The “International Centre for Justice for Palestinians” (ICJP) has been ordered to pay all of a dual national IDF soldier’s costs after they comprehensively failed in an attempt to prosecute him. ICJP has also been ordered to attach a full copy of the Judgment and Costs ruling to any future court applications they make in England and Wales.

An attempt by the ICJP to prosecute a reservist in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) was comprehensively defeated in an English Court.

“Soldier A”, a British-Israeli dual national, returned to Israel from a temporary stay in England following the Hamas-led atrocities of 7 October 2023 in order to rejoin his unit in the IDF.

ICJP argued that this contravened the UK’s Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 and applied to the Westminster Magistrates Court to issue a summons to require soldier A to attend the Court to be charged with the alleged offence.

In an excoriating judgment of 8 April 2026, Chief Magistrate Goldspring rejected ICJP’s application on multiple grounds of law and fact. He also held that the application was an abuse of process and made without complying with the prosecutor’s duty of candour.

The Chief Magistrate made a preliminary ruling on 19 June 2026 that an order to pay legal costs should be made against ICJP, but not against ICJP’s lawyers. He left the amount of these costs for further consideration.

On 10 July 2026 the Chief Magistrate gave his final judgment , ordering ICJP to pay all of soldier A’s legal costs assessed on an indemnity basis. This is a higher basis than the usual standard basis, reflecting his disapproval of ICJP’s conduct.

He also accepted the quantification of these costs submitted by soldier A’s legal team of £82,130, which he found to be “entirely reasonable and proportionate given the complexity of the response forced upon the Defendant”.

Finally, and importantly for the future, the Chief Magistrate expressed “the formal expectation that the ICJP shall attach a full, unabridged copy of this Costs Ruling, alongside the Substantive Ruling of 8 April 2026, to any and all future applications it may file in the courts of England and Wales”.

Judge Goldspring concluded that he could not impose an injunction to this effect, but warned ICJP that failure to comply would be viewed as a further independent breach of its duty of candour and invite severe scrutiny of the tactical approach for which he had already made adverse findings in the proceedings.

UK Lawyers for Israeli (UKLFI) congratulates soldier A’s brilliant legal team, which comprised Daniel Berke of 3D Solicitors (and also a Director of UKLFI) and barristers Natasha Hausdorff (also Legal Director of UKLFI Charitable Trust) and Peter Wright KC.

A spokesperson for UKLFI said: “This case shows that when we fight lawfare against Israel, explaining to the Court the law and the facts, and what our opponents are really trying to achieve, we win. We should not be defeatist. We should show up, fight and defeat cases such as this.”