High Court rejects challenge to export of UK-made F-35 parts to Israel
The High Court has rejected the challenge brought by rights groups which sought to halt the export of British-made F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel following a 20-month court battle.
In a 72-page ruling released on Monday, Lord Justice Males and Mrs Justice Steyn said that the case was narrowly focused on whether the court could rule that the UK "must withdraw from a specific multilateral defence collaboration" considered vital by ministers to the defence of the UK because some UK-made parts might be supplied to Israel and used in serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza.
"Under our constitution that acutely sensitive and political issue is a matter for the executive which is democratically accountable to Parliament and ultimately to the electorate, not for the courts," they found.
Middle East Eye understands that the groups who brought the case are discussing an appeal.
Shawan Jabarin, general director of Al-Haq, the Palestinian human rights group which brought the challenge along with the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan), said on Monday that, despite the outcome, the case had had significant impact, including contributing to last year's suspension of around 30 arms export licences to Israel.
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"This case has centred the voice of the Palestinian people and has rallied significant public support, and it is just the start," Jabarin said.
Yasmine Ahmed, UK director of Human Rights Watch, one of three British human rights groups which intervened in the case, said she and others were "incredibly disappointed" by the ruling.
“Judicial deference to the executive in this case has left the Palestinians in Gaza without access to the protections of international law, despite the government and the court acknowledging that there is a serious risk that UK equipment might be used to facilitate or carry out atrocities against them," Ahmed said.
“The atrocities we are witnessing in Gaza are precisely because governments don’t think the rules should apply to them. This perception of impunity, which has been reinforced by the government’s unwillingness to suspend arms licensing, has led to unimaginable horrors and atrocities being carried out on Palestinians.”
Labour MP Richard Burgon said the ruling had made it "very clear" that the matter was one for the government and parliament, and called for an immediate vote in parliament if the government continued exports the parts.
"Let's end the passing of the buck. Let's end the saying it's for the courts to decide. The government needs to take moral responsibility now and decide whether or not it wants to continue complicity in a genocide," Burgon said.
"If it makes the wrong decision, it won't neccessarily be the courts that they need to be scared of in terms of judgement. It will be the judgement of people, the judgement of history, but mostly imporatnly, the judgement of the Palestinian people who deserve self-determnation."
How we got here
The case was first initiated by Glan and Al-Haq in late October 2023, soon after Israel launched an attack on Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks in Israel earlier that month.
Under the Tory government, UK arms exports to Israel continued without any apparent change, despite concerns raised as early as November 2023 by the Foreign Office unit assessing Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law.
Last September, the newly elected Labour government suspended around 30 export licenses for UK-made arms after the government assessed there was a clear risk the items could be used in Gaza in serious violations of international humanitarian law.
The licensing of UK-made F-35 components exported directly to Israel were suspended, but parts sent to a global F-35 programme spare parts pool which could end up in Israel were exempted, leaving the court case to shift focus onto the parts.
UK-made F-35 components make up 15 percent of every F-35, one of the world's most sophisticated fighter jets which Israel has used extensively in its campaign in Gaza, as well as in Lebanon and more recently in Iran.
The government had argued that there was no way the UK could unilaterally halt the export of UK-made parts without impacting the worldwide fleet of F-35s and threatening global peace and security.
Glan and Al-Haq, and the three British human rights organisations which are parties to the case, argued that under the Arms Trade Treaty and the Genocide Convention, the UK, as a state party to both, is obligated to stop sending the parts and that, by failing to follow its obligations, is threatening the rule of law globally.
Court documents filed in the case have shed light on the government's often obscure policy making around arms exports, including revealing that the senior UK defence officials unsuccessfully sought, through their American counterparts, to suspend the parts without impacting the F-35 programme.
Filings also showed that the Foreign Office assessment unit found there was no serious risk that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza, weeks before the F-35 parts sent to the global pool were exempt from suspension.
More than 56,500 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, with 133,419 wounded, according to the Gaza health ministry.
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