Why the UK Government was Taken to Court Over Arms Sales to Israel

Summary

• On 2 September 2024, the government had announced a partial suspension of arms exports to Israel.
• But there was a big loophole. Parts and components for F-35s would be excluded because they play “an important role in the maintenance of global peace and security.”
• A legal case was brought against UK arms exports by Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq and the Global Legal Action Network, claiming that licensing arms sales to Israel was unlawful given they were being used to commit genocide in Gaza.
• But on 30 June 2025, two High Court judges refused Al Haq’s case, accepting the government’s arguments.
• A two-way arms embargo on Israel is needed.

As part of growing opposition to UK support for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq and the Global Legal Action Network brought a legal case against UK arms exports. It said that the government’s ongoing licensing of arms sales to Israel was unlawful, given the risk that the weapons might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) against Palestinians, including genocide in Gaza.

On 30 June 2025, two High Court judges refused Al Haq’s case. They decided that some of the legal issues were not justiciable in a UK court and that it was not for judges to second-guess the decisions made by the government. They also accepted at face value the government’s claim that the risks to international peace and security of halting arms sales overrode the risks to Palestinians of continuing them.

How did this perverse situation come about?

Is the UK selling arms to Israel to use in Gaza?

Israel has used all the conventional weapons at its disposal in its war on Gaza since October 2023. Its main arms supplier, by an enormous margin, is the USA; the UK plays a secondary but significant role. It is not possible to know the true value of UK arms exports to Israel but they are significantly higher than the government claims. UK industry provides at least 15% of the parts for every new F-35 combat aircraft manufactured, as well as parts for the global spare parts pool for the aircraft. The F-35 has become particularly controversial in the war: for example, Israel used F-35s on 18 March 2025 when it broke the ceasefire, killing over 436 Palestinians in one day.

Protest against Israel’s war on Gaza has become a feature of public life across the UK and shaped the outcome of the 2024 General Election. Five independent MPs were elected to Parliament on a pro-Gaza platform and arms sales became a flashpoint of public discontent and anger over UK foreign policy. On entering office as Foreign Secretary, David Lammy became responsible for the human rights and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) assessment of arms exports. By 24 July 2024, the government had concluded that Israel was not committed to complying with IHL and five weeks later, on 2 September 2024, the government announced a partial suspension of arms exports.

The UK government partially suspends arms export licences

Court documents from the judicial review show that the government considered two options once it had decided Israel was not committed to complying with IHL: to suspend licences for use in military operations in Gaza; or to “send a political signal” by suspending all licences for use by the Israeli armed forces, whether in Gaza or not. The government chose the first option, and fewer than 10% of existing arms export licences for Israel were suspended.

There was a big loophole with even this narrow suspension, however. The government also decided that parts and components for F-35s that reach Israel via the global spare parts pool would be excluded from the suspension – even though they have direct use in Gaza. The government claimed that there were “exceptional circumstances” of the “immensely serious and imminent risks to international peace and security” that would be posed suspending the supply of parts to the global pool.

When ‘Peace and Security’ Means Arming Genocide

The government claimed that suspending parts for the F-35 programme would undermine US confidence in the UK and NATO, harm NATO’s ability to control airspace, and that F-35s play “an important role in the maintenance of global peace and security.” But crucially, no more detail was given publicly: it was all provided in secret submissions and discussed in closed court sessions. These un-evidenced potential future risks were deemed more catastrophic than the actually-occurring harm to Palestinians taking place right now.

The High Court judges accepted the government’s arguments in their totality. They accepted that the danger to F-35 programme would be “immediate” whereas the potential that F-35 parts would be used against Palestinians in IHL violations was “uncertain”; and that there was “no realistic prospect of success” of persuading the USA to suspend parts to Israel. They also said that some of the legal questions could not be answered in a UK court because treaties like the Arms Trade Treaty and Genocide Convention are not incorporated into UK domestic law.

The judge said that the “acutely sensitive and political issue is a matter for the executive which is democratically accountable to Parliament and ultimately to the electorate”. But neither Parliament nor public opinion seem to matter to the government: nearly 60 MPs and peers have signed a letter calling for full arms embargo on Israel, and the government is suppressing protest. “Terrorism connection” conditions have been added to charges against people arrested for criminal damage in the course of direct action against arms factories, and the government has proscribed the direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation – it is now a terrorism offence to not only be a member of Palestine Action but merely to support it. The law is working in two ways to justify the UK’s arming of a genocide: the High Court judgement legitimises arms sales to Israel, while the government uses the Terrorism Act 2000 to suppress dissent and protest against its policy.

Stop arming Israel

On the day the decision was handed down, 30 June 2025, Palestinian casualties in Gaza and the West Bank stood at 57,647 since October 2023 – and that’s just the number that were officially reported, the bodies able to be counted. In Gaza, well over 17,000 children have been killed in that time. Over the past twenty months, the UK government has mobilised its well-rehearsed playbook regarding arms exports: deny, deflect, delay. It has paid lip service to harm to Palestinians with a narrow and inadequate suspension of some direct arms exports and then undermined even that response by making an exception for parts for the international F-35 programme.

What is needed is a two-way arms embargo on Israel. Such an embargo would materially reduce Israel’s ability to commit genocide, occupy Palestinian land and operate an apartheid system of rule; force it into compliance with international rules and law; and isolate it from supply chains and the international community until it changed its practices.

Digested read created by the author with editorial support from Anya Pearson.