For the last four years, my job has been to comb through government statements, along with policy and legal documents, and then brief members of parliament on exactly what linguistic and legal gymnastics the government of the day is using to justify exports of military equipment – despite evidence that these exports are likely to be used in war crimes.
At a certain point, I recognised these documents and legal arguments for what they really are: the bureaucracy of genocide.
While we might have seen a change in tone from senior UK ministers in recent weeks in relation to starvation and famine in Gaza, it has been accompanied by a deepening denial of British complicity, including through ongoing arms sales to Israel.
In a radio interview on LBC this summer, former Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “The UK is not supplying Israel with arms that can be used in Gaza.” Host Nick Ferrari then asked if the assertion made by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) – that the UK is still supplying components for the F-35 fighter bomber – was wrong. Lammy responded: “It’s wrong. It’s wrong. It’s wrong.”
As advocacy manager at CAAT, I can tell you with absolute certainty that we, our partners and our supporters, are not wrong.
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It is implausible that Lammy, a Harvard-educated barrister, has forgotten about the unprecedented loophole he himself announced to parliament last September, allowing the ongoing transfer of UK-made components for F-35 fighter jets to a global supply pool that is accessed by Israel.
While a small number of arms licences were suspended, the most deadly and valuable arms export continued. The UK has argued that for vague reasons of “international peace and security”, it needs to continue exporting F-35 components to the global pool (a move that appears largely aimed at appeasing the programme’s lead partner, the US).
Lethal aircraft
This past May, I sat in the public gallery through a week of High Court hearings, where at least a dozen lawyers defended the government’s position on the F-35 issue against a legal challenge brought by our incredible partners Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights NGO based in the occupied West Bank, and the Global Legal Action Network. I will never forget the dignity that my colleagues from Al-Haq showed as the lives of their people were debated in front of them for a week.
To quote the government’s position as submitted to the court, the F-35 exception came despite the “clear risk that Israel might commit serious violations of IHL [international humanitarian law] in the conduct of hostilities in Gaza, including through the use of F-35s”.
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Described as the most lethal fighter aircraft in the world, around 15 percent of every F-35 jet is made in the UK. Israel has then used these jets to drop 2,000-pound bombs on displaced Palestinians living in tents, as in al-Mawasi, Gaza, where Israel killed 90 people in a designated “safe zone”.
Turning a blind eye to Israeli military violations appears to be UK government policy. While accepting that Israel has violated the rights of Palestinians in relation to aid provision and the “treatment of detainees”, the Foreign Office in September 2024 said it had “not been possible to reach a determinative judgment on allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities”.
In the High Court, it cited “overall” concerns regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities, but would not acknowledge even a single “possible” violation of international humanitarian law involving a bomb or an air strike.
Not only is this reasoning absurd and irrational; it is a stain on our collective humanity
By last September, Lammy’s Foreign Office had assessed 413 potential violations of international humanitarian law by Israel in Gaza, and reached the conclusion that there was “insufficient information to decide” either way in 411 of those incidents – that is, 99.5 percent of all cases. The one incident it deemed a “possible” breach was the April 2024 World Central Kitchen strike.
Meanwhile, Al-Haq’s case revealed that as of September 2024, the government’s assessment was that there was “no serious risk of genocide occurring”, despite a cross-departmental team finding in June of that year that “it is uncontentious that conduct which could, in principle, satisfy the physical component of genocide continues to take place in Gaza”.
What the government said was missing was Israel’s “genocidal intent”, arguing that the “areas of most acute concern with respect to compliance with IHL do not relate to Israel making civilians the object of attack”. On this wilfully deluded basis, the government argued that Israel did not show genocidal intent.
How could anyone rationally make such a finding, when for every incident or air strike that might actually show Israel making civilians the object of attack, you’ve decided there’s not enough information to determine whether it is a violation? Not only is this reasoning absurd and irrational; it is a stain on our collective humanity to deny our country’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
Waking nightmare
Bomb, blockade, starve, destroy. Starvation of whole peoples in Yemen or in Gaza isn’t an unfortunate outcome of wars where UK arms exports are used. From the outset starvation is central and our arms exports are complicit.
Starving Palestinians pushed into open-air cages, shot and killed as they desperately try to feed their families under the guise of “aid” – this waking nightmare has been made possible by the unprecedented impunity granted by western nations to Israel and the US.
This past July, Lammy was asked explicitly whether there had been a recent assessment in relation to the indiscriminate killings of starving people queuing for aid. He did not provide a direct answer, noting only that more assessments of potential violations of international humanitarian law had taken place. The Foreign Office did not address this point when contacted for comment by Middle East Eye.
And so, we are left wondering: has the Foreign Office even bothered to assess the killings of Palestinians queuing for aid? Perhaps it “didn’t have enough information” to determine whether there were “possible” violations, or it couldn’t decide what category these violations fell under? This is the kafkaesque nightmare that underpins a sanctioned genocide.
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After MEE reached out to the Foreign Office for comment, it forwarded queries to the Department for Business and Trade, which noted in a statement that the UK had suspended licences for items that the Israeli army could use in military operations in Gaza – including direct exports of F-35 components – based on the UK government’s assessment that these “could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations” of international humanitarian law.
The statement added: “It is not currently possible to suspend licensing of F-35 components for use by Israel through the global F-35 Programme without prejudicing the entire programme, which would have serious implications for international peace and security due to its crucial strategic role in the defence of NATO and other UK allies. The High Court has upheld this Government’s thorough and lawful decision making on this matter.”
Neither department responded to additional questions from MEE, including on the issue of Israel’s genocidal intent.
When it comes to arms sales, and to maintaining western military hegemony over the global majority, the law appears to bend towards those who hold power. The UK, and all other partners to the F-35 programme – Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the US – must immediately halt the transfer of F-35 components and jets to Israel.
As someone whose ancestors come from up and down the west coast of Ireland, these developments render meaningless the “apology” given by a previous UK government for its role in the Irish Famine. Don’t tell me you care about the starving Irish people of the past, while simultaneously providing Israel with the means to bomb and starve Palestinians two centuries later.
On behalf of myself and my ancestors – and any other descendant of famine who want to stand with us – we will not forgive or forget this.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
