800 British judges and lawyers call for UK to sanction Israel over Gaza conflict

A group of over 800 British judges, lawyers and academics has called on the UK government to impose an array of sanctions on Israel over the ongoing conflict in Gaza, claiming that either genocide is being perpetrated right now or there is a “serious risk” of it occurring.

The signatories, who include two former Supreme Court justices and three former heads of the Court of Appeal, cite comments by senior Israeli cabinet ministers regarding destroying what remains of Gaza and dislocating its civilian population.

The legal professionals called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to impose financial sanctions on Israeli cabinet ministers and military personnel “suspected of involvement in unlawful conduct,” and to impose trade sanctions on Israel as well.

By contrast, the UK’s opposition Conservative Party leader on Sunday said Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza was a “proxy war on behalf of the UK.”

“Who funds Hamas?” Kemi Badenoch asked in a Sky News interview, and continued: “Iran… an enemy of this country. Israel is fighting a proxy war on behalf of the UK, just like Ukraine is on behalf of Western Europe against Russia. We have to get serious.”

“Israel is fighting a war,” Badenoch added. “It is not for me to police exactly how they are doing that,” she said. “It is not a genocide, as people are saying.”

When it was put to her that she does not criticize anything Israel does, she replied: “That’s not true. I have criticized things before, but right now, there are 58 hostages who have not been returned home.”

The conflict erupted when Hamas staged its October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre, in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

On March 2, Israel cut off all humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza, prompting intense international criticism and reports of malnutrition and hunger. Israel resumed the provision of aid last week.
Also last week, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy suspended free trade negotiations with Israel, said the UK would “review” the “2030 roadmap for UK-Israel relations” cooperation agreement, and imposed sanctions on several extremist settlers and settler organizations.

Israel has strongly denied allegations of genocide, arguing that many civilian casualties are caused by Hamas’s placement of military infrastructure and personnel among civilians, and that it has consistently monitored the humanitarian situation in Gaza to prevent famine and a humanitarian catastrophe.

But in their letter to Starmer, the judges and other legal professionals alleged that “genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide occurring.” They also claimed that the “limited aid” now flowing into the Strip “remains gravely insufficient to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.”

The signatories cited statistics published by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that claim that 70 percent of fatalities are women and children, although such claims have been widely criticized as unreflective of the actual ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths in the IDF’s campaign.

In their letter, the signatories also pointed to controversial comments by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has said that Gaza will be “totally destroyed” in the current IDF operation, and that the entire population will be displaced.

They said that the plan of the current IDF operation was “to forcibly and permanently displace the population of Gaza to small areas of the Gaza Strip, and coerce their emigration to other countries,” which they asserted would be a “grave violation of international humanitarian law.”

The judges, lawyers and academics accused Israel of committing “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and serious violations of international humanitarian law,” both in Gaza and in the West Bank, and pointed to an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice last year that said Israel’s rule in the West Bank is illegal.

In light of the allegations, the signatories called on Starmer to do everything in his power to “secure an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” and ensure the provision of large amounts of aid to Gaza.

They also requested that the prime minister “impose financial and immigration sanctions” against Israeli cabinet ministers and “other civil and military personnel reasonably suspected of involvement in unlawful conduct,” and said the government should review trade ties and impose trade sanctions upon Israel.

Jonathan Turner, CEO of the UK Lawyers for Israel organization, pointed out in response to the letter that the same group of legal professionals made “serious factual and legal errors” when they accused Israel of genocide last year.

Turner also asserted that “there has been no famine or mass starvation in the Gaza Strip,” and that during the January to March ceasefire “sufficient quantities of food supplies were transferred into the Gaza Strip to last for several months.”

Added Turner “Throughout 2024 UN bodies and other international organisations repeatedly predicted famines which never occurred. Reports claiming famine was occurring or imminent were riddled with errors.”