UK High Court dismisses Gaza-related challenge to Israel arms
The UK’s High Court has dismissed a legal challenge to Britain’s arms sales to Israel, according to the two NGOs that had filed the lawsuit in December.
The Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (‘GLAN’) had brought a lawsuit against the UK Department for Business and Trade, urging the uk government to halt arms sales to Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.
‘High Court rejects our legal challenge with alhaq.org over UK weapons exports to Israel,’ said GLAN in a post on X, 20 February. ‘We are working on challenging this decision,’ it added.
‘The govt. decision to continue supplying Israel with weapons to continue its military aggression against men, women & children in Gaza is effectively arming Israel to completely decimate the Gaza Strip, reducing Gaza’s vital civilian infrastructure to rubble,’ Shawan Ibrahim, Al-Haq’s general director, posted on X.
The plaintiffs had applied for a judicial review of the government’s export licences for British weapons that can be used in Israel’s war in Gaza, where nearly 29,000 people have been killed so far, mostly civilians. Israel launched its military operation in Gaza following the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
‘The UK has a legal and moral obligation to not grant licences for the sale of British weapons to regimes that commit atrocity crimes,’ Ahmed Abofoul, an international lawyer at Al-Haq said when the case was filed.
