Joe Glenton | Canary
The legal landscape around UK citizens serving in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has shifted, lawyers say. Palestinian statehood means that Brits who served in Israel’s genocide can be tried and jailed.
Paul Heron of Public Interest Law Centre told Novara Media:
The legal landscape has shifted.
Now that Palestine has been recognised as a state, the legal and moral excuses for inaction have fallen away.
For the first time, it is now arguable that British dual nationals serving in the Israeli military in Gaza or the West Bank could fall foul of the Foreign Enlistment Act, a law that makes it an offence for a British subject to fight for a foreign state at war with another state with which the UK is at peace.
Foreign enlistment act: applicable to the IDF?
Technically the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 means Brits who served in foreign armies can be jailed or fined. But the act is very old and poorly enforced. Heron said may not serve as a basis for prosecution.
In April 2010, Public Law Interest Centre and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights submitted evidence to British police regarding ten individuals who’d served in the Israeli military:
Our 240-page submission to the Metropolitan police highlights that the UK cannot turn a blind eye.
The police have the power, the resources and the responsibility to investigate British nationals alleged to have taken part in war crimes, wherever they occur.
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