Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law
JVL Introduction
In an extraordinary intervention, more than 600 senior lawyers and academics have warned the UK government that it is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel.
It is not just the range of senior people involved, including the Supreme Court’s former president Lady Hale, but the depth of its argument, in an extended legal opinion downloadable here, in which the signatories spell out:
- Recent legal and factual developments: the Provisional Order of the the ICJ, the worsening situation in Gaza and the legal implications of these facts
- The UK’s obligations to prevent genocide, both its obligations under the Genocide Convention and its capacity to influence
- Five actions the UK must urgently undertake, which it spells out in compelling detail
Phillippa Kaufmann KC captures the significance of the lawyers letter:
“That so many senior members of the UK legal profession are speaking with such force to urge the government to act upon its legal obligations, demonstrates the depth of our concern about the clear evidence of gross violations of international law in Gaza.”
RK
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Wed 3 Apr 2024. Read the original here.
Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law
Exclusive: More than 600 prominent lawyers sign letter that calls for end to exports as a ‘measure to prevent’ genocide
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The legal profession is to be congratulated in mobilising such an outstanding weight of opinion to produce this admirable document.
In recent years, the Tory government has taken the view that it does what it wants without constraint and it is time they were stopped. The Labour Party does not know what democracy is and is beholden to a foreign power.
When the time comes, if a general election is properly handled to express the views of people as a whole, rather than cliques, people will be pleased to see a mass of prosecutions to ensure that the rule of law is upheld here AND THAT THE LAW IS NOT PERVERTED BY PEOPLE WHO ARE IN POWER, BUT WITHOUT A PROPER DEMOCRATIC MANDATE.
Thank you JVL! I cant find the link to signing the open letter which is still open for signing.. Prof Emeritus Law/Human Rights..
Admirably, about 60 KCs have signed this letter, but the signature of one prominent former DPP seems to be missing. Why might that be..?
My very ordinary experience of having been a long-standing member of the Labour Party throughout its reconquest by its minority ruling elite which hypocritically misrepresented concern about the murderous oppression of the indigenous people of Palestine as ‘antisemitism’ has been depressing.
I really hope that the excesses of the extremist Israeli government are at least turning around fashionably correct opinion within our own country.