LONDON (Dispatches) – The High Court has rejected the challenge brought by rights groups which sought to halt the export of British-made F-35 fighter jet parts to the Zionist regime following a 20-month court battle.
In a 72-page ruling released on Monday, Lord Justice Males and Mrs Justice Steyn said that the case was narrowly focused on whether the court could rule that the UK “must withdraw from a specific multilateral defense collaboration” considered vital by ministers to the defense of the UK because some UK-made parts might be supplied to the Zionist regime and used in serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza. 
“Under our constitution that acutely sensitive and political issue is a matter for the executive which is democratically accountable to Parliament and ultimately to the electorate, not for the courts,” they found.
Middle East Eye understands that the groups who brought the case plan to appeal. 
Al-Haq, the Palestinian human rights group which brought the legal challenge along with the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan), said on Monday that the court had failed to meet its demands, but that the groups had “achieved a partial suspension of UK arms to Israel, exposed [government] complicity in war crimes and rallied public support”. 
“This is a breakthrough & just a start. We fight on for justice,” Al-Haq posted on X. 
Yasmine Ahmed, UK director of Human Rights Watch, one of three British human rights groups which intervened in the case, said she and others were “incredibly disappointed” by the ruling.
“Judicial deference to the executive in this case has left the Palestinians in Gaza without access to the protections of international law, despite the government and the court acknowledging that there is a serious risk that UK equipment might be used to facilitate or carry out atrocities against them,” Ahmed said.
“The atrocities we are witnessing in Gaza are precisely because governments don’t think the rules should apply to them. This perception of impunity, which has been reinforced by the government’s unwillingness to suspend arms licensing, has led to unimaginable horrors and atrocities being carried out on Palestinians.”
The case was first initiated by Glan and Al-Haq in late October 2023, soon after the Zionist regime launched an attack on Gaza.
Under the Tory government, UK arms exports to the occupied territories continued without any apparent change, despite concerns raised as early as November 2023 by the Foreign Office unit assessing the Zionist regime’s compliance with international humanitarian law.
Last September, the newly elected Labour government suspended around 30 export licenses for UK-made arms after the government assessed there was a clear risk the data-x-items could be used in Gaza in serious violations of international humanitarian law.