Leading UK
law firm claims government's failure to suspend existing export licences is
illegal
The Guardian, The Observer, Jamie Doward, Saturday 16 August 2014
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| A Palestinian man carries a child killed in the blast outside a UN run school in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, earlier this month. Photograph: Hatem Ali/AP |
The
government faces being dragged into the high court over the sale of military
hardware to Israel in an unprecedented legal move that puts the UK's
controversial export policy on a potential collision course with the EU.
Law firm
Leigh Day, representing the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), has written to
the business secretary, Vince Cable, claiming that the failure by the British
government to suspend existing licences for the export of military components
to Israel is unlawful as there is a risk that they may have been used in Gaza.
It says that it has been instructed to seek a judicial review of the
government's reluctance to suspend licences unless it agrees to stop the export
of the components.
The move
puts the UK's multimillion-pound military export programme in the spotlight
when Israel's actions in Gaza have caused international concern and there is
mounting disquiet about the role foreign states are playing in facilitating the
conflict, which is now the subject of an uneasy ceasefire.
The
government has come under sustained pressure to justify its continued sale of
military equipment since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July.
To date, more than 1,900 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been
killed, according to Palestinian and UN officials. On the Israeli side, 67 have
died, all but three of them soldiers.
Following a
review initiated by the prime minister this month, the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills announced it would suspend 12 export licences for arms
and other military equipment to Israel only if the current ceasefire was
broken.
However, in
its letter to Cable, shared with the Observer, Leigh Day says the definition of
what constitutes a "broken" ceasefire leading to a resumption of
hostilities is not defined or explained. It says the campaign group is
concerned that arms manufactured in Britain may have been – and could continue
to be – used in Gaza in breach of international humanitarian and human rights
law.
The law
firm cites the air strike on a UN school in Rafah as an example of such a
breach. The attack, reportedly by Israeli troops, resulted in the deaths of 10
civilians and was described by the UN as a "gross violation of
international humanitarian law" and a "moral outrage and a criminal
act".
"If
arms from the UK are being used to commit crimes against humanitarian law, and
human rights law, then export licences for these materials must be revoked
immediately," said Rosa Curling of the human rights team at Leigh Day, who
is representing the campaign group.
"If
this is not done, the government's current policy is unlawful and susceptible
to legal challenge. We have asked the government to clarify the review of the
arms export licences and requested details of all current licences to
understand what is being sent so we can get a better picture of whether any of
the arms supplied by the UK have been or may be used in criminal acts."
Export
licence applications to Israel are considered case by case and checked against
EU criteria which stipulate that the government must consider their impact on
regional peace, security and stability, as well as the human rights record of
the recipient. Campaigners believe the UK's decision to continue to allow
exports of military equipment to Israel runs counter to these criteria.
"After
the slaughter of recent weeks, it beggars belief that the UK government is
continuing to allow the export of components which it admits could be part of
equipment used by the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza," said Ann Feltham,
parliamentary co-ordinator at the CAAT. "Such equipment containing UK
components has been used in Israeli attacks in the past and the licences should
never have been granted in the first place."
Any
suspension of exports would have an impact on UK military hardware manufacturers.
The CAAT claims that since 2010 the UK has licensed £42m of military equipment
to Israel, including that used in targeting systems and drone components. UK
companies also provide components that go into US-built equipment destined for
Israel.
The legal
challenge launched by Leigh Day, the firm that secured £20m in compensation
from the government on behalf of victims of torture during Kenya's Mau Mau
uprising in the 1950s, is highly unusual but not without precedent. In 2004 the
high court refused permission for a judicial review into the government's
continued sale of military equipment – including Scorpion tanks, Saracen
armoured personnel carriers and Hawk aircraft – to Indonesia.
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