Simon Hooper
Middle East Eye / September 9, 2024
Lord Carlile tells Middle East Eye he has resigned from pro-Israel group on same day it threatens government with legal action over weapons sales ban.
An influential patron of a pro-Israel legal advocacy group seeking to challenge the UK government’s decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel has said he supports the partial ban and has resigned from the organization.
Lord Carlile, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, told MEE on Monday that he had resigned as a patron of UK Lawyers for Israel but had no further comment.
Writing for the Independent website on Monday, Lord Carlile said that the decision by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to suspend 30 export licences was the right one.
Carlile also accused the previous foreign secretary, David Cameron, of sitting on the same legal advice relied on by his successor, David Lammy, since February.
“Sitting on clear legal advice for more than a very short time cannot be justified. Starmer has shown courage and conviction in deciding that the right thing must be done – however difficult it is,” he wrote.
Carlile’s opinion piece was published on the same day that UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) said it had written to the government threatening legal action unless the decision to suspend arms licences was reversed.
UKLFI said it would seek a judicial review of the decision, and questioned its basis on the assessment that Israel had not done enough to facilitate humanitarian access to Gaza during its war against Hamas, and allegations of mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners.
Jonathan Turner, UKLFI chief executive, said: “We consider that there is a strong case that the government’s decision was unlawful.
“In truth, it was a political decision to appease members of the public who hate Israel based on misinformation and biased media coverage of the war. As such, it was a misuse of the power granted by the legislation.”
UKLFI describes itself as “an association of lawyers who support Israel and seek the proper application of the law in matters relating to Israel”.
A copy of the letter published on UKLFI’s website, sent to the government on Friday, listed Lord Carlile among the organization’s patrons in a footer on the first page.
But, writing on Monday, Carlile said he had been “dismayed” by condemnation of the arms exports ban voiced by, among others, the UK’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, former prime minister Boris Johnson, and “a few lawyers”, accusing some critics of undermining the rule of law.
Responding to the arms exports ban last Monday on social media, Mirvis said: “It beggars belief that the British government, a close strategic ally of Israel, has announced a partial suspension of arms licences, at a time when Israel is fighting a war for its very survival.”
The ban, he added, “feeds the falsehood that Israel is in breach of International Humanitarian Law”.
Simon Hooper is an award-winning journalist
