On 24th September GLAN’s legal co-lead Dearbhla Minogue appeared on Channel 4’s Dispatches: Britain’s Gaza Secrets Exposed.

The Dispatches investigation into the UK’s response to Israel’s war crimes in Gaza explored case documents from GLAN and Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq’s arms exports legal challenge. The report details how Britain’s flawed arms exports decision making process relied on Israel to report its own crimes in order for the UK to conclude that violations of international law had occurred.

Dearbhla Minogue said, “The government have manufactured its own wilful blindness to some of the most blatant war crimes ever committed. The question now is whether there will be any consequences for the ministers that hollowed out international law for the benefit of a state openly committing atrocity crimes and genocide. The government must urgently examine how this was allowed to occur through an independent inquiry.”

Our case revealed three crucial findings that the government must urgently address:

• An arms exports assessment process unable to find violations unless confirmed by the perpetrator: The UK Government would not conclude Israel had violated international law, unless Israel reported its own crimes.
• US pressure to create exception to UK arms-export rules: The UK prioritised participation in the US-led F-35 programme over and above its legal obligations to prevent UK weapons being used in war crimes and genocide.
• The UK rendered the duty to prevent genocide practically inoperable: The government relied on the same flawed decision-making process to assess whether there was a risk of genocide in Gaza leading it to find ‘no such risk’; while simultaneously telling parliament that it could only act once genocide was determined only by a competent court.

Read more about our case with Al-Haq.

The government must now commit to an independent inquiry into its response to Israel’s action in Gaza and reaffirm its commitment to the Geneva Conventions and Genocide Conventions, through concrete actions.

Support our continued efforts for accountability for Israel’s crimes in Gaza.