The UK has been accused of failing to rein in Israel by organisations who say it has not followed the International Court of Justice's findings on Palestine.
The UN's highest court issued six provisional measures to Israel in January 2024, which it said were needed to prevent a genocide in Gaza. It also ordered member states to take steps to prevent Israel from committing such crimes.
But critics say that the UK government is still too soft on Israel.
“The UK government needs to honour its self-professed commitment to international law, to do all it can to fully support the ICJ and ensure that war crimes, breaches of international humanitarian law, and genocide, do not go unpunished,” said the Council for Arab-British Understanding in a statement.
“Israel’s actions in Gaza have not just continued but escalated, thereby strengthening the overwhelming evidence that the crime of genocide is being committed,” it said.
“There have been continued violations of international law, and no substantive action from the UK and other liberal democracies,” the statement said.
Attorney General Richard Hermer, whose role it is to determine the legality of the government’s actions, told an audience at the UN's 80th anniversary in London this month of the importance of preserving the court.
“The ICJ, as the world’s apex court, demonstrates how international law can help states address the defining challenges of our era, challenging disputes that would have once been settled on the battlefield into a court of law,” he said.
Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee heard on Tuesday how the Israel had “robustly ignored” the ICJ's advisory opinion.
Daniel Levy, who heads the US Middle East Project and is a former negotiator for the Israeli government, said that although the UK had shown support for The Gambia's case against Myanmar at the ICJ, it had yet to do so for the South Africa case.
“That's something the UK could join as well,” he told MPs at the committee.
He also urged the UK to make public its own findings on the ICJ's July 2024 advisory opinion, which found that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories was illegal.
“We still haven't had a response from the UK government. I understand that opinion exists inside the government,” he said.
Caabu's statement described the UK’s sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, as well as on other extremist settlers and groups in the occupied West Bank as “minimal”, and said the partial arms sales ban introduced in September 2024 was too little, too late.
“The long-term failure to ensure that international law is met to its highest level has led to a situation where the rules-based system is being eviscerated,” the statement said.
Israeli attacks on Gaza continue despite a US-led ceasefire that is entering its second phase. The remains of the last remaining Israeli hostage in Gaza, Ran Gvili, were returned on Monday.
Aid is still slow to enter the Gaza Strip, compounded by an Israeli ban on the UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA). More than a million people are living in crowded tents with inadequate access to clean water, food and medical care.
The UK charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, one of the dozens of aid agencies that will be barred from entering Gaza from March this year, raised the alarm on Monday about the prevalence of acute respiratory illness in the enclave.
Nine out of 28 intensive care patients with severe respiratory illness admitted to Gaza’s Nasser Hospital in January have died, the charity said.
Britain's Labour government has said it would be guided by international law in its decision-making, as it took steps to sanction the two settler Israeli ministers, other extremists and the organisations that support them.
Although the UK imposed a partial ban on arms sales to Israel for weapons used in Gaza, it successfully defended a decision to continue providing F-35 fighter jet components at the High Court in June last year.
Its decision to recognise the state of Palestine in September was criticised for being presented as a condition to strong-arm Israel into ending its military campaign in Gaza.
Hamish Falconer, the UK’s Minister for the Middle East, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza “remains desperate” despite the ceasefire.
“Half a million people are struggling to find enough food. 100,000 people are in catastrophic conditions,” he said in parliament this month.
“The Peace Plan was clear: the Israeli government agreed to let aid in, without interference, through the UN and other international organisations,” he said.
“More trucks are entering Gaza, and this is very welcome. But right now, key crossings are closed, convoys are being turned back, medical and shelter supplies are blocked, and NGOs are being banned,” he said.
“We joined nine other countries in stating that this is not acceptable over the recess. The Peace Plan cannot work if NGOs are shut out. Israel’s decision to ban 37 of them is unjustifiable.”
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has been contacted for comment.
