SEVERAL human rights organisations have condemned the UK Supreme Court’s decision that a lawsuit against the government, challenging its continued arms sales to Israel, falls outside the jurisdiction of the courts.
Groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), and the Palestinian organisation Al-Haq described the ruling day as a ‘dark day for justice, accountability, and international law’.
Following the court’s decision on Monday, several human rights organisations issued statements and spoke to the media in front of the courthouse.
Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director at Human Rights Watch, strongly criticised the ruling, saying: ‘Today is a sad day for justice, accountability, and international law — but even sadder for the Palestinian people who continue to face genocide and other atrocities.’
Doreen McCarthy, legal researcher at Al-Haq, said the ruling reveals the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
‘This case is only the beginning of our struggle for justice and accountability,’ McCarthy added. She called on states to impose an arms embargo on Israel, sever all diplomatic, political, economic, and trade ties, expel Israel from the UN General Assembly for committing genocide, and arrest and prosecute perpetrators of genocide.
In 2024, Al-Haq and GLAN filed a legal petition to the UK’s highest court after repeated calls to suspend arms sales to Israel were ignored. The two organisations had demanded that the UK government suspend all arms export licences to Israel, including parts for F-35 fighter jets.
The US government has also just approved a $510 million weapons sale to the Israeli regime, reinforcing Washington’s military backing as the regime’s genocide in Gaza reaches its 21st month.
The sale, approved on June 30, includes over 7,000 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits – 3,845 KMU-558B/B kits for the BLU-109 bomb body, and 3,280 KMU-572 F/B kits for the MK-82 bomb body.
Additionally, the agreement covers technical support, engineering assistance, and logistics services provided by the US government. The US State Department stated that the arms transfer is intended to ‘assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready (military) capability,’ calling it ‘vital to US national security interests.’
In February, the US State Department announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4 billion in weapons to Israel, which has used lethal American weapons in its genocidal war on Gaza. These included thousands of MK 84 bombs, penetrator warheads, and Caterpillar D9 bulldozers.
‘The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel,’ the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement.
On May 27, Tel Aviv reported receiving more than 90,000 tons of American military equipment over 600 days, with the latest shipments marking the 800th delivery. Israel stated that these arms have played a ‘key role’ in its Gaza operations.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the US president earlier this year, declaring, ‘Donald Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House. He’s shown it by sending us all the munitions that were being held up.’
Meanwhile the Hamas movement is advancing. It has given Yasser Jihad Abu Shader, a leader of the Daesh-linked group 10 days to surrender to the authorities, warning that he will be tried in absentia if he fails to comply. Shader faces charges of treason, armed rebellion and forming an armed gang.
Hamas’s armed wing has slammed Abu Shader for leading a network of collaborators recruited by Israel to sow chaos in the Gaza Strip. Now Hamas is putting the collaborators before a revolutionary court stating that the Palestinian masses are now in command!
It is in this revolutionary situation that the TUC must now take action is support of the developing Palestinian revolution.
It must support the Palestinian people by calling a general strike to bring down the Labour government and bring in a Workers Government that will organise the calling of general strikes internationally to win the war in Palestine, by bringing in Workers Governments in the EU and the USA, and by getting rid of the capitalist ruling classes that have spent billions on seeking to colonise the Palestinian people.
The TUC and the trade union leaders in the USA and EU must be forced call general strikes in support of Palestine.
FORWARD TO THE VICTORY OF THE WORLD SOCIALIST REVOLUTION! THERE IS NOT A MOMENT TO LOSE!
