The following open letter was published on 26 May 2025 signed by more than 800 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges. The full list of the signatories can be found here.

The text of the letter and footnotes but excluding the 828 signatories

Dear Prime Minister,

We are lawyers, legal academics and former judges who are UK-based or qualified.  We write owing to our deep concern over the worsening catastrophe in the occupied Palestinian territory (“oPt“: Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem) and our commitment to upholding the rule of law.

Serious violations of international law are being committed and are further threatened by Israel in the oPt.

First, genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide occurring. The limited aid now allowed into Gaza, after an 11-week blockade on food, medical supplies and the essentials of human existence, remains gravely insufficient to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.[1] Israel continues simultaneously to escalate its military operations in Gaza, while senior Israeli Ministers have expressed their intention to “take control of all the territory of the [Gaza] Strip” and “conquer, cleanse and stay – until Hamas is destroyed”, further stating “what remains of the Strip is also being wiped out.”[2]

Second, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and serious violations of international humanitarian law are being committed in the oPt.

Third, Israel has been found by the International Court of Justice in July 2024 to be violating peremptory norms of international law across the entire oPt in denying the Palestinian people their right to self-determination and unlawfully annexing territory acquired by force.

Israel’s May 2025 plan – the implementation of which began on 16 May 2025[3] – is to forcibly and permanently displace the population of Gaza to small areas of the Gaza Strip, and coerce their emigration to other countries, in grave violation of international humanitarian law, international criminal law and international human rights law. Israel has moreover decided in May 2025 to facilitate and accelerate settlement development in the West Bank (including the territory designated as Area C under the Oslo Accords).  Both measures exacerbate Israel’s ongoing and longstanding breach of the jus cogens (non-derogable) right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.

All States, including the UK, are legally obliged to take all reasonable steps within their power to prevent and punish genocide; to ensure respect for international humanitarian law; and to bring to an end violations of jus cogens norms of international law.  The UK’s actions to date have failed to meet those standards.

We welcome the indication that your Government is prepared to go further.  A joint statement issued on 19 May 2025 by the leaders of the UK, France, and Canada rightly recognises that the level of human suffering in Gaza is “intolerable.” [4] The statement warns of possible “further concrete actions” against Israel.[5]

We ask your Government to act in accordance with its fundamental international legal obligations, and with your Government’s stated central objective of upholding the rule of law,[6] by taking, without delay, the following “concrete actions”:

• Use all available means to secure an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to ensure the urgent, unconditional and unimpeded resumption of aid, at scale, to the population of Gaza;
• Use all available means to secure the lifting of Israel’s ban upon the United Nations Relief and Works Agency throughout the entire oPt;
• Impose financial and immigration sanctions in relation to Israeli Ministers and other civil and military personnel reasonably suspected of involvement in unlawful conduct;
• Review existing trade ties with Israel; suspend the 2030 Roadmap for closer UK-Israel partnership; and impose trade sanctions upon Israel; and
• Confirm that the UK will adhere to its obligation to execute arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court in relation to the oPt.

Our detailed reasons are set out in the Legal Memorandum on the UK’s Obligations under International Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which can be seen here.

Earlier letters from the UK legal community alerting the UK Government to its legal obligations in relation to Gaza dated 26 October 2023 and 3 April 2024 can be seen here and here respectively. Those letters addressed, among other points, the cessation of arms sales to Israel. As the legality of the UK’s decisions concerning arms sales is now under consideration by the High Court of England and Wales, we do not address that issue further here.

The May 2025 letter and Legal Memorandum remain open for signature by retired judges, legal practitioners and legal academics (PhD or higher) qualified and/or practising in the UK.

The views and opinions expressed in this letter are those of the signatories and are not intended to reflect the official policy or position of their employers, or the organisations of which they are members or otherwise represent.

List of Signatories

List of 828 Signatories to the 26 May 2025 Letter And Legal Memorandum can be found here.

Footnotes to the Introduction

[1] UNOCHA, 19.05.25, UN Chief welcomes renewed aid deliveries to Gaza, but stresses it’s only a “drop in the ocean” of what is needed,  https://www.ochaopt.org/content/un-relief-chief-welcomes-renewed-aid-deliveries-gaza-stresses-its-only-drop-ocean-what-needed.

[2] The Guardian, 19.05.25, Netanyahu vows to ‘take control’ of Gaza as UK, France and Canada threaten action against Israel, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/19/benjamin-netanyahu-israel-take-control-gaza-uk-france-canada-threaten-action.

[3] CNN, 17.05.25, Israel launches major new offensive in Gaza as UN calls the situation for Palestinians ‘beyond inhumane’, https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/16/middleeast/gideons-chariots-israel-new-gaza-offensive-latam-intl .

[4] Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street and the Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC MP, 19.05.2025, Joint statement from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-from-the-leaders-of-the-united-kingdom-france-and-canada-on-the-situation-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank.

[5] Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street and the Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC MP, 19.05.2025, Joint statement from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-from-the-leaders-of-the-united-kingdom-france-and-canada-on-the-situation-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank.

[6] The Attorney General has emphasised your Government’s intention to uphold the rule of law including through the UK ‘clearly, and without question, honouring our obligations under international law’: Attorney General’s 2024 Bingham Lecture on the rule of law, published 15.10.24.