Legal challenge over UK weapons exports to Israel due in October

LONDON: A challenge over the UK’s role in allowing weapons to be sent to Israel for use in Gaza is set to be heard by the High Court in October.

Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq is bringing legal action against the Department for Business and Trade over decisions to not suspend licences for the export of weapons and military equipment.

At a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, lawyers for the group argued the Government is acting unlawfully and is wrong to find that continued licensing of arms to Israel for use in Gaza is lawful.

Victoria Wakefield KC, for Al-Haq, said the Trade Secretary is required to not grant a licence “if she determines that there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.

The barrister described the situation in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war as a “humanitarian nightmare” and said there is an “obvious and overwhelming scale of civilian harm which is increasing every day”.

Ms Wakefield said there have been more than 34,000 deaths, including around 14,500 children, with famine “worsening day by day”, as well as the “mass destruction of civilian and residential buildings”. “It is difficult to conceive of a more serious day-to-day situation … the bodies, I am afraid to say, are mounting up,” she told the High Court in London.

The barrister added in written submissions that the lawfulness of Israel’s conduct in Gaza “is one of the vexed and dominant issues of the day”.The Department for Business and Trade is defending the challenge.

In written submissions, Sir James Eadie KC said: “The issues have been and continue to be considered, at the highest levels, with conspicuous care and thoroughness.“The decision-maker, here the Trade Secretary on advice from the Foreign Secretary in particular, is to be accorded the broadest margin and respect on the very well-established bases considered in those judgments.

“The Secretary of State’s position is that those decisions have at all times been lawful and, in particular, rational.” At the end of the hearing, Mr Justice Swift said the hearing of the legal challenge will take place in early October.

Dearbhla Minogue, senior lawyer at the Global Legal Action Network, said after the hearing: “The UK Government has stretched legal reasoning to the point of absurdity in order to arm a country that is committing grave violations of international humanitarian law. The Government seems to be making this process as painstakingly slow as possible.“Given the urgency of the situation in Gaza, the Government should listen to the international legal consensus and halt weapons sales now.”