800 UK lawyers call for sanctions on Israel over 'genocide' in Gaza

Hundreds of British lawyers and academics are once again using their profession to oppose Israel’s prosecution of its war against Hamas in Gaza.

A few months into the war, the same group called on the UK government to suspend arms transfers to Israel. At the time, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) said they made "serious factual and legal errors" in accusing Israel of breaching international law.

The signatories, including retired judges, is calling for sanctions, citing UN statistics about aid and imminent starvation.

"First, genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide occurring,” the signatories wrote in a letter to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

They argued that his government is “legally obliged to prevent and punish genocide."

Starmer and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy had harsh words for the Israeli government last week – remarks the lawyers welcomed – but they said the United Kingdom must go further by imposing sanctions on individual Israeli ministers as well as trade sanctions on the state of Israel.

The letter also called for the UK to suspend its "2030 Roadmap" with Israel – an agreement on defense, technology and science, and culture and the arts.

Jonathan Turner, CEO of UKLFI, told the Times of Israel (TOI) that “there has been no famine or mass starvation in the Gaza Strip,” and that during the January to March ceasefire, “sufficient quantities of food supplies were transferred into the Gaza Strip to last for several months.”

Turner also told TOI: “Throughout 2024 UN bodies and other international organizations repeatedly predicted famines which never occurred.” 

“Reports claiming famine was occurring or imminent were riddled with errors,” he added. An extensive review of UKFLI's findings among these reports can be found here.

Additionally, UKLFI posted a video on 𝕏 of Joan Donoghue, president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), clarifying that they did not find a plausible case of genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, but rather only examined the claim from South Africa against Israel because there was sufficient evidence to show that there was simply a risk of genocide.

Meanwhile, the UK’s opposition Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, reminded the world on Sunday that 58 Israeli and international hostages are still being held by Hamas terrorists, without international aid, 600 days after Hamas launched its war against Israel.

“Israel is fighting a proxy war on behalf of the UK,” she told Sky News. “It is not for me to police exactly how they are doing that.”

“It is not a genocide, as people are saying,” she added.