UK assessed there was 'no serious risk' of Israel committing genocide in Gaza

The British government assessed last year that there was “no serious risk” of a genocide occurring in Gaza, weeks before it imposed a partial suspension of arms exports to Israel which did not include parts that could end up in Israeli F-35 fighter jets.

Before that decision was taken, a handling plan set out that newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer would call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let him know the suspensions were coming.

These details are laid bare in the government’s argument filed in the judicial review of the UK’s decision to continue exporting F35 parts to Israel.

The case opened at the High Court on Tuesday, 19 months after Palestinian rights group Al Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) first made their challenge. In the intervening months, the then-newly elected Labour government announced a partial suspension of around 30 arms export licences in September.

The government, however, continued to allow the export of F-35 parts to a global pool which could eventually end up in Israel jets, citing the risk to global peace and security if they stopped.

Report by Dania Akkad in London.

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