Palestinians inspect the damages at Al Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital and the area around it following a two-week operation, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, 2 April 2024;
Credit: Reuters/Dawoud Abu
LONDON (Reuters) - Three former Supreme Court justices have joined more than 600 members of the British legal profession in calling for the government to halt arms sales to Israel, saying it could make the United Kingdom complicit in genocide in Gaza.
Echoing the growing number of opposition politicians who have called for a halt to British arms sales, the three justices joined other barristers, former judges and legal academics in urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to change policy.
Sunak has faced growing political pressure after seven aid workers, including three British nationals, were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the besieged enclave this week.
"The provision of military assistance and material to Israel may render the UK complicit in genocide as well as serious breaches of International Humanitarian Law," the judges and barristers said in a seventeen-page letter. "Customary international law recognises the concept of 'aiding and assisting' an international wrongful act."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the allegations of genocide "outrageous", and said Israel has an "unwavering commitment to international law".
One of the former justices, Jonathan Sumption, told BBC Radio he was concerned the British government had lost sight of its need to prevent genocide.
The UK sells explosive devices, assault rifles and military aircraft to Israel but it is a relatively small supplier, with Israeli exports making up about 0.4% of Britain's total global defence sales in 2022, the last full-year data was available.
The lawyers cited the fact that the International Court of Justice had in January 2024 ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention, plus the growing fears about famine.
Sunak has resisted calls to immediately halt weapons sales, saying the country has a "very careful licensing regime" which it will continue to adhere to.
But the killing of aid workers has ratcheted up international pressure on Israel nearly six months into its siege and invasion of the Palestinian enclave that was triggered by Hamas' assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Israel's military has voiced its "sincere sorrow" over the airstrikes and pledged an independent investigation.
