UK govt lawyers say Israel in breach of international law in Gaza

News Desk - The Cradle

The UK government refuses to publicly acknowledge its lawyers advice, which would require halting arms sales to Israel

UK parliament member Alicia Kearns. (Photo credit: DHS)

The UK government has received advice from its own lawyers stating that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in Gaza but has refused to make the advice public, a prominent British lawmaker has stated.

The Guardian reported on 30 March that Alicia Kearns, the Conservative chair of the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, said, “The Foreign Office has received official legal advice that Israel has broken international humanitarian law, but the government has not announced it.”

She added that as a result, the UK must end arms sales to Israel without delay.

Kearns made the comments while answering questions at a Tory fundraising event on 13 March. The comments became public after the Observer obtained a leaked audio of her remarks.

According to the Guardian, Kearns’ comments are “at odds with repeated ministerial denials and evasion on the issue.”

“They have not said it, they haven’t stopped arms exports. They have done a few very small sanctions on Israeli settlers and everyone internationally is agreed that settlers are illegal, that they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing, and the ways in which they have continued and the money that’s been put in,” Kearns said at the fundraiser.

Kearns said that both she and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron believed in Israel’s right to defend itself. “But the right to self-defence has a limit in law. It is not limitless,” she said.

On Saturday night, Kearns, a former Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence official, stood by her leaked comments.

“I remain convinced the government has completed its updated assessment on whether Israel is demonstrating a commitment to international humanitarian law and that it has concluded that Israel is not demonstrating this commitment, which is the legal determination it has to make,” she said. “Transparency at this point is paramount, not least to uphold the international rules-based order.”

The UK barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice said that if the government had received this advice, “at the very least, that would mean the UK would have to look at the whole issue of arms sales to Israel. It takes you into the area of aiding and abetting. It takes you into to very difficult areas.”

 “Countries supplying arms to Israel may now be complicit in criminal warfare. The public should be told what the advice says,” he said.

When asked in January by Kearns if the UK government had received this advice, Foreign Secretary Cameron responded, “I cannot recall every single bit of paper that has been put in front of me … I don’t want to answer that question.”

On 22 March, David Lammy MP, the shadow foreign secretary, called on Cameron to publish the legal advice on Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law. However, Cameron refused to do so.

The UK’s arms exports to Israel are relatively small, amounting to only £42m in 2022. But if the UK cuts off weapons supplies to Israel, other countries may be encouraged to do the same.

Israeli forces have killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, in their war on Gaza since 7 October. Since that time, Israel has laid seige to Gaza, preventing food and other humanitarian aid to enter the strip. Palestinians in Gaza are now threatened by starvation and famine.