Patrick Wintour
The Guardian / January 31, 2025
Hearing likely in May, seven months after government decided to carve out jet parts from arms export ban.
A high court judge has ruled a judicial review must be quickly heard on government claims that national security entitles ministers to sell parts for F-35 jets to Israel even though Britain accepts that there is a risk they will be used in breach of international humanitarian law.
The hearing will most likely take place in May – nearly seven months after the Labour government made the contentious decision to carve out F-35 parts from the ban on arms exports to Israel.
The exception was made by ministers in September when the government suspended arms export licences for any offensive weapons Israel could use in Gaza. They said there was a clear risk Israel was breaching international law in its treatment of Palestinian prisoners, and in restricting aid into Gaza.
Internal government correspondence revealed in Mr Justice Chamberlain’s judgment shows that the defence secretary, John Healey, convinced the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, that the licence to sell UK F-35 components for use by Israel could not be withdrawn without significant effects upon the whole F-35 program and NATO security.
He wrote: “Such a suspension of F-35 licensing leading to the consequent disruption for partner aircraft, even for a brief period, would have a profound impact on international peace and security.
“It would undermine US confidence in the UK and Nato at a critical juncture in our collective history and set back relations. Our adversaries would not wait to take advantage of any perceived weakness, having global ramifications.”
The government has admitted to the court without caveat that the F-35 parts could be used to break international humanitarian law.
Part of the evidence that Ministry of Defence officials have given to the court about the integration of the F-35 programme and its role in Nato in combating Russia has been kept closed.
But ministers have said the loss of UK components, some of which are exclusively supplied by the UK to the F-35 global spares pool, would have an effect in days, and in the event of a war with Russia lead to a lengthy land campaign due to the reduction in air power.
Ministers also claim contractually the UK could not withhold spares without a consensus to allow this in the Washington-based board that oversees the F-35 program.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, specifically acknowledged to the court that “Israel’s actions in Gaza continue to lead to immense loss of civilian life, widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure, and immense suffering”.
UK government lawyers have also told the court that Israeli F-35s do not assist Israel’s unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territories or help Israel to commit unproved acts of genocide.
The case has been brought by the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq alongside the Global Legal Action Network, but they have been joined by Oxfam, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In September, the Labour government suspended about 30 licences after a review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law in the ongoing conflict, after the previous Conservative government refused to do so in December 2023 and April and May 2024.
But an exemption was made for some licences related to components of F-35 fighter jets, and about 330 licences continued unaltered, which concerned items such as training and air defence equipment.
At a hearing in November, Al-Haq asked for permission to challenge the decision not to suspend all licences in September, the move to carve out licences for F-35 components from the suspension, and decisions by the former Tory government not to suspend licences.
Chamberlain said he was not minded to allow a challenge over the past Conservative government’s decisions but the carve-out for F-35 parts should be heard at an expedited “rolled-up” hearing – where the case is heard and permission is decided at the same time – by the end of May.
He said: “The F-35 carve-out decision is one of considerable public importance in the UK and more broadly. There is a powerful public interest in a quick, final determination of its legality, one way or the other.”
He said he had heard no argument that the ceasefire in Gaza made the case irrelevant.
Shawan Jabarin, the general director of Al-Haq, said: “Gaza is destroyed, it is unliveable. Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and erased by weapons whose components are supplied to Israel by the UK government, acting in full knowledge of the consequences.”
Patrick Wintour is diplomatic editor for The Guardian
___________
No human rights concern would stop UK selling F-35 parts for Israel, say NGOs
Dan Sabbagh & Patrick Wintour
The Guardian / January 14, 2025
Campaigners argue the British government has concluded that parts for the jets must be supplied in all circumstances.
Labour ministers have effectively determined there is no human rights concern that could justify halting the sale of F-35 fighter jet parts that could be used by Israel in Gaza, according to a legal submission from two campaign groups.
Lawyers representing the NGOs Al-Haq and Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) argue the UK government has concluded that the UK has to continue supplying F-35 parts in all circumstances, otherwise Nato air defence against Russia could be compromised.
The claim comes in a new document submitted on behalf of the campaign groups as part of a judicial review attempt to force the UK to halt all exports to Israel related to F-35s on human rights grounds, because of the impact on civilians of bombing in Gaza.
If F-35s using British parts were used “by Israel or senior Israeli officials to commit or facilitate serious violations” of humanitarian law, lawyers for the campaigners argue, ministers “would not even take them into account”.
Their position is based on a previous submission from the government’s legal team. That said the UK accepts that the UK-made components for F-35 jets “might be used” by Israel to commit war crimes.
But, the government argues, the continued export of F-35 components was nevertheless justified for wider reasons of “international peace and security”, because the fighter jets parts are supplied to a wider pool of countries as well as Israel.
Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq’s general director, accused the government of displaying “utter contempt” for Palestinian life.
“It is outrageous that, despite acknowledging the clear risk that F-35 components could be used by Israel to commit serious violations of international law, including genocide, the government continues to export the components,” Jabarin added.
There were more than 1,000 F-35 jets operating globally, and many were operating on behalf of Nato, the government submission argued, and the aircraft was a significant element in western defence “in particular against Russia”.
In September, Labour said it would suspend 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, arguing there was a “clear risk” the equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international law.
But components for F-35 fighters jet were exempted because, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, said, the planes were manufactured as part of a global programme. That prompted the campaign groups to challenge the decision.
The campaigners also argue that the government has not proved that it would be impossible to prohibit the export of F-35 parts to Israel simply by informing other manufacturers that UK-made parts must not be provided to Israel.
F-35s are made by a global consortium led by the US defence giant Lockheed Martin. British firms supply 15% of the parts as part of an international agreement involving the US and six other countries in 2006 and 2021.
The UK has blocked licences supplying arms for Israel’s offensive use in Gaza solely on the grounds of potential maltreatment of Palestinian detainees and Israel’s controls on the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
It has refused to come to a judgment on allegations that Israel has used disproportionate force, exposing a potential future gap in UK arms legislation.
At the same time, Lammy has acknowledged: “Israel’s actions in Gaza continue to lead to immense loss of civilian life, widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure, and immense suffering.”
The UK also says the nature of the Gaza conflict makes it impossible for ministers to judge whether Israel is acting in breach of international humanitarian law (IHL) or using disproportionate force in the way that it has been seeking to defeat Hamas militarily inside Gaza.
In setting out why the government cannot come to a view about whether Israel is breaching international humanitarian law in its military operations in Gaza, the government points to difficulties in accessing timely, sensitive military information, including targeting information, perceived military advantage and necessity.
It says as a result it is unlikely the specialist Foreign Office IHL cell would be able to reach “a conclusive IHL judgment in relation to the majority of incidents”. A total of 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on in October 2023, according to the territory’s ministry of health.
The high court will determine how the case should proceed, with a decision expected later this week.
Dan Sabbagh is The Guardian’s defence and security editor
Patrick Wintour is diplomatic editor for The Guardian
