By Jill Lawless | Associated Press
LONDON — More than 600 British lawyers, including three retired UK Supreme Court judges, are calling on the government to suspend arms sales to Israel, increasing pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak following the death of three British aid workers during an Israeli strike.
Britain is just one of several long-standing allies of Israel whose governments are under increasing pressure to suspend arms exports due to the fallout from the six-month-old war in Gaza.
In an open letter to Sunak published on Wednesday evening, lawyers and judges said the UK could be complicit in “serious breaches of international law” if it continues shipping arms.
The signatories, including former Supreme Court President Brenda Hale, said Britain is legally obliged to take into account the International Court of Justice’s finding that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza .
The letter states that “the sale of weapons and weapons systems to Israel… falls significantly short of your government’s obligations under international law.”
Britain is a staunch ally of Israel, but its relationship has been tested by the growing number of deaths, largely civilians, from the war. Calls to stop arms exports have intensified since an Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers at the charity World Central Kitchen, including three Britons.
Israel says the attack on aid workers was a mistake caused by “misidentification.”
Britain’s main opposition parties have all said the Conservative government should suspend arms sales to Israel if it violates international law in Gaza.
Several senior conservatives have insisted on the same thing, including Alicia Kearns, who heads the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.
Sunak did not commit to banning arms exports, but said Wednesday that “while we of course defend Israel’s right to defend itself and its people against attacks by Hamas, they must do so in accordance with international humanitarian law.
British companies sell a relatively small amount of weapons and components to Israel. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said military exports to Israel were worth 42 million pounds ($53 million) in 2022.
Other allies of Israel also face calls to cut weapons supplies and push for a ceasefire in the conflict, which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, authorities say health facilities in Gaza.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Thursday that his country had stopped selling arms to Israel and urged other countries to do the same. Sanchez said Wednesday that his government had left “the door open” for diplomatic actions against Israel because of its “insufficient” explanation of the aid workers’ deaths.
In February, Canada announced it would stop future shipments, and the same month a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands to stop the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel. The Dutch government has announced that it will appeal.
Other countries, including Israel’s two largest arms suppliers, the United States and Germany, continue to authorize arms sales.
Germany is one of Israel’s closest allies in Europe and, given memories of the Holocaust, is cautious when criticizing Israel. But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has increasingly expressed his unease, asking Netanyahu in a meeting last month how any goal could “justify such terribly high costs.”
Peter Ricketts, the UK’s former national security adviser, said suspending arms sales to the UK would not change the course of the war but “would send a powerful political message”.
“And it might just stimulate the debate in the United States as well, which would be a real game-changer,” he told the BBC.
Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed to this story.
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