UK assessed there was ‘no serious risk’ of Israel committing genocide in Gaza
Al-Haq general director Shawan Jabarin (L) greets MP Jeremy Corbyn (R) outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 13 May 2025
Dania Akkad reports in Middle East Eye on 13 May 2025:
The British government assessed last year that there was “no serious risk” of a genocide occurring in Gaza, weeks before it imposed a partial suspension of arms exports to Israel which did not include parts that could end up in Israeli F-35 fighter jets.
Before that decision was taken, a handling plan set out that newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer would call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let him know the suspensions were coming.
These details are laid bare in the government’s argument filed in the judicial review of the UK’s decision to continue exporting F35 parts to Israel.
The case opened at the High Court on Tuesday, 19 months after Palestinian rights group Al Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) first made their challenge.
In the intervening months, the then-newly elected Labour government announced a partial suspension of around 30 arms export licences in September. The government, however, continued to allow the export of F-35 parts to a global pool which could eventually end up in Israel jets, citing the risk to global peace and security if they stopped.
Al Haq and Glan have argued that by making this “F-35 carve out”, the government is breaching its domestic and international legal obligations, including the genocide convention. But the government argues that it could not be held accountable for violating its duty to prevent genocide under the convention “unless and until there is actually a genocide”.
“No English court, and no international court or tribunal, has found that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Nor should this court make such a finding,” the government says in its skeleton argument.
Rejecting Al-Haq’s assertion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the government’s lawyers say there is “a tenable view that no genocide has occurred or is occurring”. According to a June 2024 assessment cited by the government, the Export Control Joint Unit – a cross-departmental body overseeing UK export controls and licensing for military and dual-use items – had concluded that Israel “does not intend to commit genocide”.