Pro-Israel lawyers launch bid to overturn partial UK arms embargo on Israel

‘Unlawful decision to appease Israel-haters’ – British government’s decision to suspend 30 arms deals with Israel faces legal challenge.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

The British government’s new partial arms embargo on Israel is facing a legal challenge, less than a week after it was announced.

Last Monday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy informed Parliament that the Starmer government was revoking arms transfer licenses for weapons systems destined for Israel.

Lammy emphasized that not all military systems would be barred for export to Israel, and that only weapons likely to be used in the war in Gaza and which could pose a “clear risk” of being used to “commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law” would be affected by the ban.

Thus far, 30 licenses have been suspended out of 350 total for Israel, Lammy said.

On Sunday, however, a group of pro-Israel attorneys in Britain threatened legal action against the government if the ban is not withdrawn.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) on Sunday challenged the Labour government’s partial arms ban, noting that it was based on section 2c of the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria (SELC).

Section 2c of the SELC bars the government from granting “a licence if it determines there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

However, UKLFI noted, neither of the concerns cited by Lammy to justify the partial arms ban related to the SELC rules, instead allegeding that Israel ought to do more to permit more humanitarian aid into Gaza, and claiming that there are credible allegations of mistreatment of jailed Gazan terrorists.

In a letter to the government, UKLFI pointed out that even if both claims were valid, they are not connected with the particular arms whose export licences are being suspended, and therefore the decision is not justified under criterion 2c of the SELC.

“We consider that there is a strong case that the government’s decision was unlawful,” said UKLFI Chief Executive Jonathan Turner.

“In truth, it was a political decision to appease members of the public who hate Israel based on misinformation and biased media coverage of the war. As such, it was a misuse of the power granted by the legislation.”

arms embargoBritainBritish-Israel relations