Three former Supreme Court judges and 597 other lawyers have written to the Prime Minister to ask him to act against Israel by cutting arms sales. Britain is a signatory to the Genocide Convention and is therefore required to do what it can to prevent genocide. But the emotive issue of genocide isn’t the main point; it’s that Israel’s actions in Gaza towards its population are wrong.
The question of whether there is a genocide in Gaza has not yet been decided by the International Court of Justice (though it said there is a “plausible risk”). And lawyers being lawyers, it will be months before they can pronounce decisively on the matter. But what the court has said is that Israel potentially has a case to answer. The UK arms sales to Israel are a blip in the great scheme of things, by comparison with the US billions, but it matters as a signal of moral indignation from a country friendly to Israel.
