Armored vehicles made by Britain’s BAE systems. Pressure is growing on the British government to suspend exports of weapons and weapons systems to Israel despite the fact sales in 2022 were just $53.2, less than 1.4% of the value of U.S. sales and military aid. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo
April 4 (UPI) — More than 600 British lawyers, academics and members of the judiciary, including three former high court judges, urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday to suspend arms exports to Israel to “avoid complicity in serious breaches of International Humanitarian Law.”
In a 17-page letter they told Sunak that as a signatory of the 1948 Genocide Convention, Britain must stop the weapons sales in light of the International Court of Justice’s Jan. 26 provisional finding of “plausible risk of genocide” by Israel in Gaza.
“The ICJ’s finding of plausible risk, together with the profound and escalating harm to the Palestinian people in Gaza, constitute a serious risk of genocide sufficient to trigger the U.K.’s legal obligations,” the letter states.
The Genocide Convention requires nations to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide in another state as far as possible.
The letter goes on to say that the ICJ’s genocide ruling “placed your government on notice that weapons might be used in its commission and that the suspension of their provision is thus a “means likely to deter” and/or “a measure to prevent” genocide.”
The weapons embargo is among five demands including pushing harder to secure a permanent cease-fire, ensure safe access to and delivery of the essentials for life and medical assistance, resume funding of the U.N. Palestinian Refugee and Works Agency and sanction individuals and entities who have incited genocide against Palestinians.
In addition, they want a bilateral treaty signed last year to elevate U.K.-Israel ties to a strategic partnership by 2030 suspended and a review into suspending a trade agreement with Israel and the possibility of imposing economic sanctions.
The group also argues ongoing arms exports to Israel could be in breach of the 2013 U.N. Arms Trade Treaty that prohibits the supply of weapons to carry out genocide or serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws as well as Britain’s own export control regime.
“The U.K.’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria require the U.K. government to refuse to license military equipment for export where there ‘is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law,'” it wrote.
“The same principles apply where arms or military equipment might be used to commit or facilitate acts which constitute genocide.”
Sunak, who is under public and political pressure over the killing Monday of three British aid workers in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike, has so far resisted calls to reconsider Britain’s united stand with Israel.
“I think we’ve always had a very careful export licensing regime that we adhere to,” he said.
“There are a set of rules, regulations and procedures that we’ll always follow, and I’ve been consistently clear with Prime Minister Netanyahu since the start of this conflict that whilst, of course, we defend Israel’s right to defend itself and its people against attacks from Hamas, they have to do that in accordance with international humanitarian law.”
Senior national political figures and lawmakers in Sunak’s Conservative Party, however, are pushing for a change in policy, including former national security adviser Lord Ricketts who said Britain needed to send Israel a strong message by stopping the arms exports.
Former Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire said that while he fully supported arms sales for Israel to defend itself he opposed the “selling of arms which can be — and now look as if they are being — used offensively in Gaza.”
Welsh MP David Jones said the government must “urgently reassess its supply of arms and deliver a stern warning to Israel about its conduct.”
MP Paul Bristow said the thought that British-made weapons could be used “in action that kills innocent civilians in Gaza turns the stomach.”
Hampshire MP Flick Drummond called for arms sales to be stopped “for the foreseeable future”.
“This has been concerning me for some time. What worries me is the prospect of U.K. arms being used in Israel’s actions in Gaza, which I believe have broken international law,” she said.
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