Pro-Israel lawyers investigated over alleged campaign to intimidate Palestine supporters

UK Lawyers for Israel accused of sending 'legally baseless' letters to arts events organisers

The Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. The arts centre received a complaint about a proposed Palestinian film festival. Photo: Alamy

British charity UK Lawyers for Israel is being investigated after rights groups complained it was using legal threats to silence support for Palestine.

The complaint followed eight letters sent by UKLFI to people and organisations between January 2022 and May 2025, which the complainants say demonstrate a “pattern of vexatious and legally baseless correspondence aimed at silencing and intimidating Palestine solidarity efforts”.

Many of the concerns relate to conduct creating an intimidating, hostile and offensive environment

UKLFI statement

The complaint to the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority was made by the UK-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) and the European Legal Support Centre.

On Friday, an SRA representative said: “We have had a complaint and are investigating before deciding on next steps.”

UKLFI’s director Caroline Turner is accused in the complaint of using “strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), which are lawsuits intended to limit freedom of expression on matters of public interest”.

The complaint requested that the SRA suspends Ms Turner “to prevent further breaches” and for the UKLFI to be regulated as a law firm, “given its use of UK legal professionals’ reputations to lend credibility to its work”.

One letter was addressed to the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, which had organised a Palestinian film festival in collaboration with the Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland, according to the complaint.

Ms Turner claimed that events at the festival were “inherently anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist in nature” and could lead to a complaint to the charity regulator. Ms Turner, writing on behalf of UKLFI, asked for the event to be cancelled.

Ms Turner also wrote to the Cornelius Cardew Concerts Trust about a classical music concert called The World Stands With Palestine that was set to take place in London in November last year. She cited a flyer for the concert which featured the image of a protest placard bearing the slogan “Stand with the Resistance!".

According to the complaint, Ms Turner said the event was “designed to stir up racial hatred against Jews and Israelis, and to sympathise with the aims of the Hamas terrorist organisation” and that it could be in breach of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The concert was cancelled by its host Morley College, with college principal Andrew Gower saying it presented a “one-sided political view”.

Paul Heron, PILC’s solicitor said UKLFI “effectively acts as a law firm” and behaves “in a manner that chills public participation and intimidates those who stand in solidarity with Palestine”.

“We will not allow legal threats to shut down the public’s right to speak out on Palestine. The SRA has a duty to step in, to uphold professional standards, and to protect civil society from intimidation dressed up as law,” he said.

UKLFI rejected the accusations in the complaint and said its letters were in response to requests for assistance.

“UKLFI has been called on to address dozens and, since October 2023, hundreds of requests for help every year from Jewish members of the public expressing genuine concerns in many areas of life including medical services, retailers, education and the arts,” read a statement on their website.

“Many of the concerns relate to conduct creating an intimidating, hostile and offensive environment for Jewish patients, workers, customers or students, and sometimes excluding them altogether.

“UKLFI has not conducted any activity that can be described as a SLAPP,” the statement said.

This week, a midwife accused her former employer, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, of referring her to the counter-extremism programme Prevent following receipt of a letter from UKLFI about her online activities. Fatimah Mohamied is pursing an employment claim.

UKLFI were accused of “threat and harassment” by the office of International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan last year after the charity filed a conduct complaint against him to the UK's Bar Standards Association.

The complaint was in relation to his handling of the request for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defence minister Yoav Gallant, which the judges eventually granted.

The legal challenge prompted the resignation of one of UKLFI's patrons, prominent British lawyer and cross-bench peer Lord Carlile.