Lord Cameron, UK Foreign Secretary, has announced there will be no change to the UK’s export of arms to Israel. The announcement follows the letter, now signed by over 1,300 UK lawyers, organized by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which explained why there is no legal reason for the UK to change its export policy in relation to Israel.

UKLFI’s letter, which has been signed by former members of the UK Supreme Court, Lord Dyson and Lord Collins, as well as Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, urged Rishi Sunak to reject the calls to prevent arms sales to Israel.  Other top lawyers who signed the UKLFI letter include Deborah Finkler, managing partner of Slaughter and May, Marc Israel and Daniel Turgel, Partners at White & Case,  Craig Pollack, Partner at Covington & Burling LLP, and Simon Olswang, founder of Olswang law firm.

Lords Pannick, Grabiner, Gold, Feldman and Banner all backed the letter, as well as Baroness Deech.

Lord Cameron stated on 9 April 2024 at a press conference in Washington that the UK’s position on arms exports to Israel is unchanged.  Lord Cameron said he had reviewed the most recent advice about Israel acting in line with international law.

“The latest assessment leaves our position on export licences unchanged, this is consistent with the advice that I and other ministers have received, and as ever we will keep the position under review. …

Our position is in line with international partners. So far no like-minded countries have taken the decision to suspend existing arms export licences to Israel, and I’d add that Israel remains a vital defence and security partner to the UK. Our cooperation makes the UK and Israel more secure from external threats.

We will continue to use this robust legal process to assess those legal issues and I would just add we don’t publish legal advice, we don’t comment on legal advice but we act in a way that is consistent with it.”

Another group of lawyers had attempted to persuade Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to stop arms exports to Israel but, according to UKLFI, their letter misinterpreted Orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and relied on Hamas propaganda.

Their earlier letter claimed that the ICJ had concluded there was a “plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”. The UKLFI letter says that the Court merely held in its first Provisional Measures Order that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have plausible rights to be protected from acts of genocide.

Therefore it was the rights of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that were found to be plausible, and not the alleged commission of genocide against them.

There had been no finding in the ICJ that Israel had committed genocide as the Court had not been called upon to establish the existence of breaches of obligations under the Genocide Convention and could not make any definitive findings of fact at this stage.

The earlier letter also relied heavily on casualty figures provided by the Hamas-run, Gaza Ministry of Health. These figures do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, do not specify casualties caused by Palestinian fire (including errant rockets and direct fire on Palestinian civilians), and appear to have been fabricated, both in the overall totals and in the breakdown of men, women and children, according to several recent statistical analyses/.

Israel says that 13,000 combatants have been killed during the war so far, out of around 33,000 that the Gaza Health Ministry claims have been killed in total.

A report by the UN Secretary General found that in conflicts in urban areas in 2021, 89% of casualties were civilians, meaning 8 civilian casualties for every combatant. But in Gaza the ratio killed (even accepting the Hamas Ministry figures) appears to be more like 1.5 civilians for every combatant. This contradicts the claim that the allegation of genocide is supported by the high number of civilian casualties.

Jonathan Turner, UKLFI Chief Executive, said: “We are very pleased that Lord Cameron has confirmed in line with legal advice that the UK will continue to sell weapons to Israel as it seeks to eliminate the military and governing capability of the genocidal organisation, Hamas.”

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The text of the UKLFI letter and signatories can be seen HERE.

The letter can be signed by UK lawyers HERE