Mr Justice Chamberlain has granted permission to Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organisation, to proceed to a rolled-up 3-4 day hearing of its challenge to the government’s decision to continue granting licences to sell F-35 fighter jet components and other weapons to Israel.

The judge has also ordered that the hearing should take place in the Easter term, which is from 29 April to 23 May 2025. In the meantime, there will be an administrative hearing at 2pm this Friday 31 January, to ensure the scope of the hearing is clear and to agree a timetable.

The government has now made four separate decisions since the case was started on 6 December 2023. The first three decisions, on 18 December 2023, 8 April and 38 May 2024, were to continue granting licences to sell weapons to Israel, despite the wealth of evidence supplied by Al-Haq that to do so would be in breach of the government’s own policy and the law. In the fourth decision, on 2 September 2024, the government decided to halt licences to export weapons that might be used in Israeli military operations in Gaza. However, it decided to continue granting licences for F-35 components, as well as weapons that it did not consider likely to be used in Gaza.

At hearing on 3 September 2024, the government was ordered to provide disclosure of all materials relevant to the September decision. That disclosure revealed that the government waited five weeks to act on its own assessment that UK weaponry was at risk of being used in a way that violated international humanitarian law. In the intervening period, while UK weapons continued to be sold to Israel, at least 1,423 Palestinians were killed by Israel in Gaza, according to UN OCHA data recorded between 29 July and 2 September 2024.

At a further hearing on 18 November 2024, the government admitted that Israel was not committed to complying with international humanitarian law. It was ordered to respond to Al-Haq’s case, which it did on 20 December 2024. In that document the government confirmed its view that Israel is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law and that there was a clear risk that F-35 components might be used to commit those violations. The government therefore accepts that granting the F-35 licences would therefore breach its own policy. Nevertheless it has decided to continue granting F-35 licences because stopping them would cause disruption to the global supply chain which, it says, would have a profound impact on international peace and security.

The government says that the need to avoid disruption to the F-35 global supply chain is a matter of such gravity that it would have overridden any further evidence of serious breaches of international humanitarian law. Effectively, the government is saying that it does not matter how serious the violations may be – genocide, torture, mass killings of civilians – it would continue to grant licences to sell British F-35 fighter jet components to Israel regardless.

Al-Haq considers that this is an extraordinary position to take.

Al-Haq is therefore reassured that Mr Justice Chamberlain has granted permission for them to continue with their challenge to the government’s decision to continue granting licences to sell F-35 components and other weapons to Israel and hopes that the hearing will take place as soon as possible.

Alice Hardy said:

Al-Haq have been fighting this case for over a year, through the most terrible of times for Palestinians. While the Government’s decision to stop some weapons licences in September was welcome, to learn that the Government would continue to authorise the sale of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel, despite accepting that Israel has no intention to comply with international humanitarian law, and regardless how serious those violations may be, is dispiriting. I’m glad that Al-Haq will now have the opportunity to explain to the court why the Government’s position cannot be lawful.

General Director of Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin, stated:

Gaza is destroyed, it is unliveable. Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and erased by weapons whose components are supplied to Israel by the UK Government, acting in full knowledge of the consequences.

Al-Haq are represented by Dearbhla Minogue, Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, Jennine Walker and George Collecott at the Global Legal Action Network, supervised by Alice Hardy at Bindmans. Their counsel team comprises Phillippa Kaufman KC, Raza Hussain KC and Blinne Ni Ghralaigh KC of Matrix Chambers, Zac Sammour and Aliya Al-Yassin aoft 11 Kings Bench Walk, Rayan Fakhoury and Aislinn Kelly-Lyth of Blackstone Chambers, Jagoda Klimowicz of Brick Court Chambers, Mira Hammad of Garden Court North, Courtney Grafton at 20 Essex Chambers, Catherine Drummond of Three Verulam Buildings,  and Admas Habteslasie of Landmark Chambers.

Al-Haq are funding the case by crowdfunding. Their Crowd Justice page is here.