Rights groups take legal action against UK over arms sales to Israel
Representatives from several human rights groups and pro-Palestine activists have taken the UK government to court over its sale of F-35 fighter jet parts to the Israeli regime.
The long-awaited Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday examined whether the ministers had broken the law and participated in the Gaza genocide by providing Israel with F-35 fighter jet parts.
The campaigners held flags and signs which called on the UK government to stop helping in a genocidal war which has lasted almost 19 months, has taken the lives of nearly 53,000 Palestinians, and injured another 119,000.
Palestinian rights group Al-Haq has brought forward the current case with the support of the Global Action Legal Network (GLAN), Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam.
Zarah Sultana, a suspended Labour MP, and independent MPs Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the Labor Party, and Imran Hussain joined the protest.
"Every F-35, which is described as the most lethal fighter by its own manufacturer, is dropping 2,000-pound bombs on people in Gaza and decimating whole neighborhoods and universities," said Sultana.
"And with 15 percent of every F-35 made here in the UK, it makes us complicit in the live-streamed genocide unfolding in Gaza," she emphasized.
Taking the legal case to the Royal Courts of Justice has already had an impact.
In September, the UK government suspended several arms export licenses before it was due to appear in court in order to show the financial damage suspending arms exports has on the UK economy and to defend the continued arms sales licenses to Israel.
In papers to the court, the UK government has acknowledged that its supply of F-35 components for potential use by Israel is in breach of its own arms export control laws. But it has also argued that the sale of the F-35 parts is important to NATO's security.
The laws state that arms export licenses must not be granted “if there is a clear risk those items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law by Israel.”
Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, one of Al-Haq’s lawyers, has said that F35s have played an extremely vital role in the Gaza war, especially on March 18 when the Israeli regime violated its ceasefire agreement with Hamas and assaulted the conclave.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, during the attacks on March 18, 400 Palestinians were killed, including 183 children and 94 women.
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