Lord Sumption met his match at a House of Commons Committee Hearing when Natasha Hausdorff, UKLFI Charitable Trust’s Legal Director, opposed his view that the UK should stop arms exports to Israel.

The House of Commons Business and Trade Select Committee held a hearing on the licensing of arms exports to Israel on 24 April 2024. The committee, chaired by Labour’s Liam Byrne MP, heard evidence from Ms Hausdorff, Colonel Richard Kemp CBE, Lord Sumption PC KC and Lord Ricketts GCMG GCVO.

Lord Sumption and Lord Ricketts had previously gone on record as opposing further armed exports to Israel.  However, at the Committee hearing Lord Ricketts appeared to qualify his earlier remarks, noting that the government has now taken legal advice and decided to continue allowing arms to be exported to Israel.

Lord Sumption, a former Supreme Court Justice, has been described by Alastair Campbell, in his diaries, as having “a brain the size of a planet” and by the Guardian newspaper as “the brain of Britain”.  He opposed further sales of arms to Israel on the ground that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had (in his view) found there was a “plausible risk of genocide” in its decision on South Africa’s application for provisional measures in its case against Israel alleging genocide. One of the UK government’s criteria for not giving a license to sell arms is if the government “determines there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.

However, Ms Hausdorff explained that the ICJ had held that South Africa and Palestinians had “plausible rights”, not that there is a plausible risk they will be violated.  UKLFI’s interpretation, which accords with the case law of the ICJ on its power to grant provisional measures, is that if the applicant State has plausible rights, the determination of whether there is a risk of irreparable damage to these rights is considered on the footing that the applicant’s allegations  will be upheld when the Court makes its decision on the merits of the case.

The Committee were aware of the letter signed by Baroness Hale, Lord Sumption and around 1,100 other lawyers (the First Letter), which set out legal reasons to oppose the sale of arms to Israel. They were also aware of the letter of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) contradicting the First Letter, which was signed by retired Supreme Court Justices Lords Collins and Dyson as well as around 1,370 other lawyers (the Second Letter), and a further exchange in the Law Society Gazette (the Third and Fourth letters). The Committee were sent a further written submission of UKLFI providing additional comments on the First and Third Letters).

Ms Hausdorff pointed out at the Committee hearing that the First Letter relied on Palestinian casualty figures produced by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. These did not take into account how many of the dead were combatants and several reports by statisticians have indicated that these figures appear to have been fabricated or manipulated.

The written evidence by UKLFI further pointed out that the South African lawyers who presented the case against Israel in the ICJ had made allegations of genocidal intent based on misleadingly abridged quotations of Israeli Ministers taken out of context.

The Committee discussed the fact that UK exports of arms to Israel are insignificant whereas Britain receives a great deal of arms and intelligence from Israel.  Richard Kemp gave evidence that in his past experience as Chairman of the COBRA Intelligence Group, intelligence sharing between Israel and Britain was beneficial to both countries and a considerable number of lives had been saved by it.

Lord Ricketts, who had been Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee when Tony Blair was Prime Minister, agreed that intelligence sharing between the UK and Israel was important.

Lord Ricketts and Colonel Kemp both thought that Israel wouldn’t withdraw from sharing intelligence if Britain stopped arms exports, but there was evidence that it would generally harm relations between Britain and Israel.

A recording of the full hearing can be seen on UKLFI Charitable Trust’s YouTube channel HERE

Transcript HERE

First Letter HERE

Second Letter HERE

Third Letter HERE

Fourth Letter HERE