An influential patron of a pro-Israel legal advocacy group seeking to challenge the UK government’s decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel has said he supports the partial ban and has resigned from the organisation.
Lord Carlile, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, told Middle East Eye on Monday that he had resigned as a patron of UK Lawyers for Israel but had no further comment.
Writing for the Independent website on Monday, Lord Carlile said that the decision by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to suspend 30 export licences was the right one.
Carlile also accused the previous foreign secretary, David Cameron, of sitting on the same legal advice relied on by his successor, David Lammy, since February.
“Sitting on clear legal advice for more than a very short time cannot be justified. Starmer has shown courage and conviction in deciding that the right thing must be done – however difficult it is,” he wrote.
Carlile’s opinion piece was published on the same day that UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) said it had written to the government threatening legal action unless the decision to suspend arms licences was reversed.
UKLFI said it would seek a judicial review of the decision, and questioned its basis on the assessment that Israel had not done enough to facilitate humanitarian access to Gaza during its war against Hamas, and allegations of mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners.
Jonathan Turner, UKLFI chief executive, said: “We consider that there is a strong case that the government’s decision was unlawful.
“In truth, it was a political decision to appease members of the public who hate Israel based on misinformation and biased media coverage of the war. As such, it was a misuse of the power granted by the legislation.”
UKLFI describes itself as “an association of lawyers who support Israel and seek the proper application of the law in matters relating to Israel”.
A copy of the letter published on UKLFI’s website, sent to the government on Friday, listed Lord Carlile among the organisation’s patrons in a footer on the first page.
But, writing on Monday, Carlile said he had been “dismayed” by condemnation of the arms exports ban voiced by, among others, the UK’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, former prime minister Boris Johnson, and “a few lawyers”, accusing some critics of undermining the rule of law.
Responding to the arms exports ban last Monday on social media, Mirvis said: “It beggars belief that the British government, a close strategic ally of Israel, has announced a partial suspension of arms licences, at a time when Israel is fighting a war for its very survival.”
The ban, he added, “feeds the falsehood that Israel is in breach of International Humanitarian Law”.
The website for UK Lawyers for Israel before the profile of Lord Carlile was removed (top) and afterwards (bottom, screengrab)
But Carlile noted that the ban of some arms exports by the UK government followed similar decisions reached by courts and governments in Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada, and was a “measured decision”.
He wrote: “It is crucial that the rule of law – which prevents the abuse of state power and applies to all – is not shouted down in an unruly way by people who are acting on prejudice, dressed up as principle.”
He added: “Those of us who hold these opinions have felt the sting of disparagement and deprecation for holding them, even from some political colleagues we admire. For Jews to criticise other Jews who hold these views is to undermine the very freedoms for which our forbears lost their lives, under the yoke of the most terrible tyranny.”
Asked for comment, UK Lawyers for Israel referred MEE to its earlier statement on its legal challenge against the UK government. Lord Carlile’s profile appeared to have been removed from UKLFI’s website on Monday afternoon.
The UK government is already facing legal action over its policy towards arms exports to Israel by campaign groups the Global Legal Action Network and Al-Haq who argue that the current suspensions – out of 350 extant licences – do not go far enough and should include British components in F-35 fighter jets used by Israel.
Jonathan Purcell, a spokesperson for the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), a legal advocacy group campaigning for Palestinian rights, told MEE: “UKLFI’s position on the legality of arms sales is seemingly so ridiculous that they apparently can’t even convince their own patrons to stay on board.
“There is only one legal action about UK arms sales that matters, and that’s the ICJP-supported legal case led by Glan and Al-Haq, calling for a total and immediate ban on arms sales.”
Israel and Israeli leaders currently face accusations of genocide and war crimes at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court over the conduct of the war in Gaza in which more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.
