Two groups challenging the UK government over its continued export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel say they will ask a judge to order a halt to all UK arms exports if the policy is not reversed by 4pm on Friday.
The case, brought by the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) and human rights group Al-Haq against the business secretary, is scheduled to resume in the High Court on Monday.
When the challenge was launched last December, the groups argued that the UK should ban all arms exports due to a clear risk that Israel might use British-made weapons to violate international humanitarian law in Gaza.
This September, after the newly elected Labour government suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel, the focus of the case shifted to UK-manufactured F-35 components, which can still be exported through third countries, with Israel as the final destination.
Arms control experts and researchers say Israel has relied on F-35s for a high volume of air strikes in Gaza and, more recently, in Lebanon over the past 13 months. UK-made parts make up 15 percent of the jets.
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The government said it cannot suspend components exported through third countries without undermining the global F-35 programme, saying that tracking parts across the programme’s complex, 20-plus country supply chain is difficult.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has defended the decision, recently telling MPs that restricting the programme could have serious unintended consequences globally.
“I am not prepared to ground planes that are saving lives in other theatres, which is why we made this decision, and I stand by it. It was the right decision,” he said on 29 October.
Glan and Al-Haq argue that the government has not properly reviewed its decision to exempt the parts from indirect export, nor developed red lines about what would compell it to suspend them.
Had a thorough review been conducted, the groups say it would have determined that suspending all exports, directly or indirectly, was the only lawful option.
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Such an assessment, they argue, is particularly critical given recent developments in northern Gaza, where 15 leaders of UN and humanitarian agencies warned on 1 November that the entire population “is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence”.
Earlier this week, lawyers for the groups gave the government until 4pm on Friday to reverse course on its F-35 “carve-out”.
If it does not comply, they say will seek a mandatory order from a judge which, if granted, would enforce a full suspension of UK arms exports to Israel as an investigation was carried out.
Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, a lawyer with Glan, told Middle East Eye on Friday that they had imposed the deadline “due the the extreme urgency of the situation”.
She noted the General’s Plan, an Israeli strategy to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza which soldiers have been reported as saying is being carried out, and Israeli air strikes earlier this week that killed at least 40 people.
“British-made F-35s are playing a crucial role in that extermination campaign so that’s why the short deadline,” Andrews-Briscoe said.
The Department for Business and Trade declined to comment on the deadline on Friday, citing the ongoing legal case.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We have suspended relevant export licences to Israel for use in military operations in the Gaza conflict, following a review which concluded there is a clear risk that UK export items might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
“We would not comment on ongoing or potential future legal proceedings.”
Monday’s hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London is scheduled to begin at 10:30 am.
