UK ARMS SALES TO ISRAEL BREAK INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
May 10, 2024Former UK Supreme Court justice, Jonathan Sumption, gave testimony to the Business and Trade Committee in the UK, stating that the weapons the UK government is exporting to Israel are being used in military policies that “arguably and probably…BREAK INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW.”
Addressing the role of the UK government in arms sales to Israel during his testimony he highlighted that the UK has legal obligations in assessing the impacts of its decisions on supplying arms to Israel.
His ground breaking statement, that should make any UK lawmaker shudder in his/her chair, Justice Sumption said: “Essentially what they (Israelis) are trying to do is eliminate a needle in a haystack by destroying the haystack. Each shroud of grain in that haystack is a human life,” Justice Sumption said.
He highlighted that the UK has legal obligations in assessing the impacts of its decisions on supplying arms to Israel.
“But we are required to do what we reasonably can and that includes assessing the effect that our decisions may have on other people who supply arms to Israel.”
Before this speech, Justice Sumption, alongside 3 other former Supreme Court justices and 600 members of the British legal profession called for the government to halt arms sales to Israel, saying it could make Britain complicit in genocide in Gaza.
Echoing the growing number of opposition politicians who have called for a halt to British arms sales, the three justices joined other barristers, former judges and legal academics in urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to change policy.
The message is CLEAR.
The UK IS COMPLICIT IN ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE!
END OF STORY! THE CURRENT LEADERS SHOULD BE CITED AND HAULED BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT FOR AIDING AND ABETTING A GENOCIDE!
@middleeasteye
English Script:
Jonathan Sumption: I think the problem is that the methods used by the Israeli Defense Force are necessarily indiscriminate. Essentially, what they are trying to do is to eliminate a needle in a haystack by destroying the haystack. Each shroud of grain in that haystack is a human life. So that I find it very difficult to see on the information available in the public domain how this can be regarded as a proportionate or a discriminate approach. Legally, we have to do what we can. We are not required to do things that are likely to have no negligible impact, but we are required to do what we reasonably can, and that includes assessing the effects that our decisions may have on other people who supply arms to Israel. That undoubtedly leaves a margin of judgment to the UK as to what the best way of doing this is. But it’s clear that they are obliged to do something. And arms sales have this special feature which is not present in other kinds of sanctions, which is that they are concerned with material that is directly being applied in the military policies that, at least arguably and I think that it probably breaks international humanitarian law.
