Genocide claim, arrest warrants and Hamas mathematics: UK Lawyers for Israel have had their work cut out for them

“We try and communicate to people Israel’s legal case and the relevant facts, particularly relating to those legal cases which are so often completely falsified.”

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) is a non-profit association of lawyers that has been at the forefront of Israel advocacy, especially since Oct. 7. Originally a tiny group, now boosted by new recruits and volunteers, they have taken on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. Most recently, they have challenged the UK government’s new policy to suspend certain arms sales to Israel, and its choice of attorney general.

“It originally started as a group of UK lawyers, but now we have members and supporters from many countries in the world, and we use the law to support Israel and counter anti-Israel activity, including BDS and financing of terrorism and many other hostile activities of our enemies, including lawfare in international courts,” Chief Executive Jonathan Turner KC told Paul Calvert, a Christian journalist based in the Middle East.

Since Oct. 7, UKLFI's workload has increased more than tenfold, Turner explained, including more public-facing advocacy. One of the UKLFI directors and a skilled communicator, Natasha Hausdorff, has appeared on numerous television and radio channels over the past 11 months.

A significant instance by UKLFI exposing inaccurate reporting involved major broadcasters, such as the BBC, assuming that the ICJ found a ‘plausible case of genocide’ in relation to Israel’s Gaza campaign against the Iranian proxy terrorist group, Hamas.

“This was a misrepresentation of a provisional order that they made in January of this year, and despite this being incorrect, it was picked up even by very senior legal figures in the UK who should have known better, former members of the UK Supreme Court, for example,” said Turner.

As a result, many people signed a letter to the former UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, saying that he must suspend arms exports because of the phrase, the ‘plausible risk of genocide.’

“We pointed out that was all based on a misconception,” said Turner. “And we were quite pleased to note that, subsequently, in an interview by the BBC, the former president of the ICJ, who had been president when the order was made and was the person who actually read it out and delivered it in in court, said that, ‘No, [that] we found a plausible case of genocide is not what we said. We said something rather different.’”

“...That clarification really did vindicate what we’ve been saying, and is an example of some of the work that we do.”

UKLFI has also drawn attention to their careful analysis of the Palestinian casualty figures being constantly reported by the mainstream media as fact, despite being released by the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry and Ministry of Information.

One of UKLFI’s free webinars featured two of the authors of one of the major analyses of these figures, a report by Tom Simpson, Lewi Stone and Gregory Rose.

“We showed that they produced one of the major reports showing that these figures appeared to be fabricated or manipulated or both, and provided very strong evidence of that,” Turner said.

UKLFI analyzed the problems in a detailed memorandum, which was promoted online and communicated to various decision-makers and broadcasters. The analysis highlights that broadcasters, international court judges, and politicians frequently reference casualty figures provided by Hamas without acknowledging that many of the deaths reported are combatants.

Turner noted that the civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio in the Gaza conflict is significantly lower than typical in urban warfare worldwide. He explained that a United Nations analysis in 2021 found the ratio to be eight or nine civilians for every combatant killed, even for highly organized military forces, and in situations where civilians were able to flee.

“Notably the military action against ISIS in Mosul, the ratio was about 2.5 to 1. In the case of the Gaza Strip, it is around 1.2 or 1.3 to 1. That is half the level in Mosul and much lower than the global average," he said.

“This is testament to the extraordinary care that the Israeli armed forces have been taking to avoid civilian casualties as far as they possibly can. [This] despite Hamas operating in, around and underneath the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, making it extremely difficult to avoid civilian casualties," Turner explained

“Nevertheless, Israel’s achievement is, by reference to what normally happens, extraordinary, and this has been recognized by commentators who are very familiar with the difficulties of armed conflict in urban areas, such as Spencer in the US, and others.”

UKLFI has been effective in holding supporters of terrorism accountable.

“First of all,” Turner said, “We’ve complained about to the police and to professional bodies and employers about people who’ve expressed support for Hamas because that’s a criminal offense in the UK, …because Hamas has been proscribed in its entirety as a terrorist organization."

“But most significantly… we contact banks and other financial service providers, money transfer services and so on who are providing services to charities or other organizations that are really fronts for terrorist organizations, or just happen to donate money to entities that are controlled by terrorist organizations.”

Over the past five years, UKLFI has successfully shut down more than 60 financial service accounts linked to over 30 different organizations due to connections with terrorism. Turner added that "this is very much ongoing business."

In tackling the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, UKLFI employs a variety of tools. Firstly, public procurement through international agreements.

“Lots of countries do have legislation that prohibits or that requires procurement decisions to be based on purely technical and commercial factors and not on the basis of political considerations,” Turner explained.

Secondly, UKLFI can invoke anti-discrimination legislation, which is particularly relevant in cases of academic boycotts that typically result in discrimination against Jewish and Israeli academics.

In the UK, one of the protected characteristics of human rights law is ‘philosophical belief.’

Turner described how the idea is growing that anti-Zionism is a protected philosophical belief and he argued that Zionism should be similarly protected: “And so academics who are discriminated against because they are supportive or sympathetic to Israel, we think that is direct discrimination and prohibited by the UK legislation.

“For example, we had a student whose essay on the crimes of Hamas against Palestinians, and it was failed because she didn’t blame Israel. And we said that was because of the discriminatory and racist mindset of the lecturers who marked it, and that they wouldn’t have treated a student who took a different approach [that way].”

Turner explained that a third way lawyers can challenge BDS is by arguing a breach of fiduciary duty. This is because someone who is a trustee or manager of a financial fund has a duty to maximize the return on the investments and is failing in that duty if they do not.

As well as UKLFI Limited, the group runs a separate charity encompassing their educational work and help for victims of antisemitism, for instance, Jewish students facing hostility on UK campuses. Turner said he hopes university authorities will act to prevent further disruptive, pro-Palestinian encampments by students in the coming fall term.

Asked why the lawyers are prepared to invest in the work for no profit, and even forgo much more remunerative work, Turner explained that “it is out of a profound sense of commitment to Israel, but also a commitment to truth and fairness, because, quite frankly, the way Israel and the Jewish people are treated is disgraceful.”

He continued: “And just as people who want to see a bit of honesty and fairness in the world, we do get very upset and concerned about the lack of that in relation to Israel.”

Asked whether British Jews are fearful at the moment, Turner replied that some are, but that he feels the prevailing emotion is anger.

“I would say that a lot of Jews are enormously angry about the position because we do feel that the lies being told about us are outrageous. And to the extent that we identify with Jewish people generally and Israel in particular, we feel that these are lies about us. You know, anyone gets angry when they are defamed.”

In terms of anxiety about the atmosphere in the UK, Turner said, “Quite a lot of people are very concerned and other people are quite concerned. I think some younger people may be thinking of going to Israel. Older people may perhaps stay but may be quite happy for their children to go to Israel. So I think it is eroding the confidence of the British Jewish community in the future of Jews in Britain.”

Despite taking on extra staff to cope with the increasingly worldwide warfare being waged against the Jewish state, in the aftermath of the Hamas massacres, Turner admitted the advocates are “completely outpaced and outgunned by the enemy activity.”

Find UKLFI social media at facebook.com/uklfi; two websites: UKLFI.com and UKLFIcharity.com; and on 𝕏 at UKLFI.

To view UKLFI webinars on Hamas’ Palestinian casualty figures and other subjects, go to ‘UKLFI Charitable Trust’ on YouTube.

Click below to listen to the full interview with Jonathan Turner.