UK firms under scrutiny for criminal liability over arms sales to Israel
Weapons manufacturers and exporters in Britain have come under close scrutiny for criminal liability over arms sales to Israel.
Media reports said on Thursday that the directors of 20 UK arms companies received notices warning them they could be held responsible in courts of law for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity for selling arms to the genocidal regime.
Citing a section in the 2001 International Criminal Court Act, pro-Palestine campaigners warned the directors of the companies that it is illegal under British law “to engage in conduct ancillary to a war crime or a crime against humanity” in foreign jurisdictions.
“Individuals transferring weapons to Israel are exposed to criminal liability, plain and simple,” said a Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) senior lawyer, Dearbhla Minogue, in a statement.
“The fact that they are hiding behind a licensing system which is unfit for purpose will not protect them if and when they face a jury of their peers because ordinary people can see through politicians' obfuscation.”
GLAN and three other campaign groups, including Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), War on Want and the International Center of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), addressed the directors of the British arms companies supplying F-35 fighter jet parts used by Israel in its ongoing savage campaign in Gaza.
Lockheed Martin manufactures the F-35 fighter jet in the United States with the help of international partners, including British firm BAE Systems, which supplies essential components to build the warplanes heavily used by Israel’s military.
The campaigners warned the British companies that they could face “potential criminal liability for atrocity crimes currently taking place in Gaza.”
“There is nowhere to hide for company directors choosing to provide weaponry to a state whose leaders have made clear their intent not to comply with international law and whose armed forces commit atrocity after atrocity,” said Neil Sammonds, a senior campaigner at War on Want.
Britain and the United States, alongside Germany and Italy, have been the main suppliers of weaponry to the Israeli regime.
The US Congress recently approved one of the largest arms sales to Israel since October, including 50 F-15 fighter jets worth more than $18 billion.
The Israeli war machine began the genocide in Gaza in early October. The regime has killed nearly 37,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 85,500 since.
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