Jurist UK High Court allows continued export of jet fighter components to Israel

[Dadparvar]

Two judges for the King’s Bench Division of the High Court in London ruled on Monday that the UK’s incidental export of fighter jet parts to Israel is lawful.

In a 72-page judgment, Justices Males and Steyn contemplated the Secretary of State for Business and Trade‘s carve-out for the export of F-35 fighter jets components. The secretary of state suspended licenses authorizing the export of certain items that could be used to facilitate Israeli military operations but excepted parts of the F-35 jets, arguing that such licenses could not be suspended without seriously threatening the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program and “international peace and security.”

The original complaint was filed by Al-Haq, a Palestinian non-governmental human rights organization committed to documenting human rights violations during the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, two other human rights organizations, intervened in the case. Complainants alleged that this carve-out will inevitably lead the UK to violate international law, stating:

The Claimant’s case is that the F-35 Carve Out puts the UK in breach of its obligations under three international treaties to which it is a party, namely Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, Articles 6 and 7 of the Arms Trade Treaty, and Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, as well as equivalent rules of customary international law reflected in Articles 16 and 41 of the Articles on State Responsibility.

The JSF Program was established by the US Department of Defense as a “design and development initiative … for use by multiple branches of the U.S. military and its NATO and other allies.” The High Court stated that “it [is] not currently possible to suspend licensing F-35 components for use by Israel without having an impact on the entire F-35 Programme.” Careful not to mischaracterize its own decision, the court clarified that continued participation in the JSF Program does not mean that “the UK [will] continue to supply F-35 components to Israel.” Plainly, the court stated that this case has never “been about whether the UK should supply arms or other military equipment to Israel … it should not.” Rather, the decision solidifies that “the UK would not cease to participate in the F-35 Programme.”

The High Court recognized that some of these fighter jet components may in fact reach Israel and even ultimately be used for violations of international humanitarian law (IHL). However, the mere “prospect that some UK manufactured components will or may ultimately be supplied to Israel, and may be used in the commission of a serious violation of IHL in the conflict in Gaza” does not suffice. The court stated that this is an “acutely sensitive and political issue [that] is a matter for the executive which is democratically accountable to Parliament and ultimately to the electorate, not for the courts.”

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