Banning F-35 supplies to Israel “would undermine US confidence in the UK”, defence secretary John Healey privately warned colleagues
A fortnight after Labour won the election, a senior minister warned colleagues against a total ban on arms sales to Israel, court filings reveal.
Defence secretary John Healey wrote to his counterpart at the business department, Jonathan Reynolds, to stress that a full arms embargo against Tel Aviv “would undermine US confidence in the UK and NATO at a critical juncture in our collective history and set back relations.”
Concern centred on the F-35, Israel’s “most lethal” fighter jet, which has 15% of its supply chain in the UK.
Britain and America both operate their own fleets of the aircraft, with spare parts shared in a ‘global pool’.
Healey’s advice, sent on 18 July, was duly followed.
When Labour announced a partial arms embargo on Israel in September, foreign secretary David Lammy excluded spare parts for F-35s, provided they were shipped via another country.
‘Critical juncture’
The government’s position, known as the ‘F-35 carve-out’ was challenged at the High Court in London today by Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.
Oxfam, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also intervened in the case.
Court documents filed by the government reveal “the F-35 carve out is based on detailed advice from the defence secretary explaining the collaborative nature of the F-35 programme.”
It showed how Healey warned Reynolds: “It is not possible to suspend licensing F-35 components for use by Israel without wide impacts to the whole F-35 programme.
“Such a suspension of F-35 licensing leading to the consequent disruption for partner aircraft, even for a brief period, would have a profound impact on international peace and security.”
He claimed: “It would undermine US confidence in the UK and NATO at a critical juncture in our collective history and set back relations.
“Our adversaries would not wait to take advantage of any perceived weakness, having global ramifications.”
President Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien openly made a similar warning days before Lammy’s partial suspension, saying Britain should “tread very carefully”.
Red list
Lammy closely tracked Healey’s warning. Court filings confirm “there were 361 extant licences for exports to Israel” on 2 September, the day he announced restrictions.
“Of these, 34 export licences were identified which were assessed to relate to items which could be used for military operations in the current conflict in Gaza (‘red licences’).”
“Five of those related to F-35 components,” the papers show, but only the other “29 licences were suspended”.
In this way, Labour made sure Israel could keep receiving spare parts for its F-35 fleet, despite acknowledging “that Israel is overall not committed to compliance with IHL [International Humanitarian Law] in Gaza, including in the conduct of hostilities.”
Representing the government, senior barrister Sir James Eadie made this clear. He wrote: “The F-35 carve out accepts that there is clear risk that F-35 components might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of IHL but determines that in the exceptional circumstances outlined by the defence secretary, these exports should nonetheless continue.”
Al-Haq’s advocates from the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) argued that Israel continues to use the F-35 in its attacks against Palestinians and in Lebanon.
Lawyers Dearbhla Minogue and Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe submitted that the business secretary was in breach of “domestic and international law obligations, including his duty to prevent genocide pursuant to Article 1 of the Genocide Convention”.
Al-Haq warned there is a “siege and widespread destruction of Northern Gaza and the famine-like situation that has resulted, coupled with what appears to be a widespread extermination plan in that area”.
It added there were “repeated fatal attacks on hospitals including neonatal units, fatal attacks on first responders, the detention and imprisonment and/or execution of medical staff, which have left no operational hospitals in the North.”
This meant that “hundreds of people being bombed and injured are dying under the rubble and/or of their wounds”.
High risk
Al Haq submitted a witness statement from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), explaining that “Military aircraft, especially when used for a long period of time in high-intensity combat operations, require a vast quantity of spare parts”.
Many of these spare parts are made in Britain, CAAT commented, explaining: “The UK is the only ‘Level 1’ partner for the F-35 programme, and at least 15% by value of every F-35 aircraft is produced in the UK.
“Recently, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson suggested that this share has increased in recent years and may be as high as 20%. This relates to all the F-35[s] produced, not just those bought by the UK.”
CAAT’s researcher Sam Perlo-Freeman cited a US government report which found “one F-35 contractor had ‘lost’ at least 1 million F-35 spare parts worth $85 million over the course of 5 years due to inadequate inventory reporting”.
The US Department of Defense observed “this represented a loss rate of only about 1%”, which CAAT said implies “around 100 million spare parts have been in circulation over a 5-year period”.
Perlo-Freeman stated: “UK production for the F-35 include[s] some major, high-tech, and critical components. These include: The rear fuselage for every aircraft …the ejector seat [and]…weapons release cables…including ones that are specially adapted for Israel’s use with their own munitions.”
He noted how “Israeli Air Force officers have revealed that Israel is using their F-35s to provide close air support to troops in Gaza using 2000-lb GBU-31 JDAM bombs.
“Such very large bombs used in built-up areas inevitably involve very high risks of harm to civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure, regardless of the target.”
He added: “While Israel has made extensive use of such weapons in Gaza, the US only used a 2,000lb once in its campaign against ISIS in Syria.”
The case continues.
Source: Declassified
