News - Middle East: London’s High Court has dismissed a legal challenge by a Palestinian rights group against the British government’s decision to continue exporting F-35 fighter jet components to Israel, ruling that the government acted “lawfully” despite the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The ruling, issued on Wednesday, has drawn international criticism over the UK’s arms export practices.

The case was brought by Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization, against the UK Department for Business and Trade, contesting the government’s exemption of F-35 parts from arms export restrictions to Israel.

In September 2024, the UK government suspended 30 licenses for items that might be used by Israeli forces in Gaza, acknowledging that such equipment risked contributing to serious violations of international humanitarian law.

However, it continued supplying F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel through a global supply network, effectively prioritizing military alliances over accountability for mass atrocities.

Al-Haq argued that the Israeli F-35 fleet had a central role in the genocide in Gaza, asserting that Britain’s exemption contributed directly to the regime’s capacity to commit atrocities against Palestinians.

The British government countered that withdrawing from the F-35 joint strike program would have a “profound and immediate impact” on national security and could undermine US confidence in Britain and NATO at a critical time.

The judges acknowledged that these parts could be used in the genocide and in violations of international humanitarian law but ruled that such matters are “a matter for the executive branch of the government, which is accountable to parliament and ultimately to the electorate, not the courts.”

Sara Elizabeth Dill, an international human rights lawyer and officer of the International Bar Association’s War Crimes Committee (IBA), condemned the ruling, stating that it “raises serious questions about who can hold the British government accountable to its international obligations when the courts declare the issue off limits.”The case revealed detailed information about the British government’s assessment of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law in Gaza.
By July 2024, nine months after the Israeli regime had launched its genocidal assault against Gaza, the British government had concluded that “while Israel might have been violating international humanitarian law during the Gaza war, there was no serious risk of genocide occurring in Gaza.”
Reviewing 413 individual incidents, the British government had found Israel had breached international law “only once,” citing the April 1, 2024, attack on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven foreign aid workers. The judges refused to scrutinize this assessment.
“There have been thousands of incidents, but not only individual incidents, there are patterns … When an entire healthcare system, education system, when 90 percent of buildings have been destroyed, when the population has been displaced multiple times at scale like that, there is only so many conclusions you can draw,” said Jennine Walker, a senior lawyer at Global Legal Action Network representing Al-Haq, referring to the British government’s so-called “findings” on the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The United Nations, other major international organizations, and the broader international community have characterized Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocidal.
In September, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) confirmed that Israel’s war in Gaza met the legal definition of genocide. Israel also faces an open case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its genocidal actions in Gaza.
During Israel's two-year genocidal war in Gaza, the regime murdered nearly 70,000 Palestinians, including 21,000 children, and wounded 171,000 others.
Despite a US-brokered ceasefire reached last month, Israel continues to violate the truce, carrying out fresh attacks that have killed dozens of Palestinians. 
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