NGOs urged the government today to meet its international legal obligations, one year after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory was unlawful. 

The ICJ’s advisory opinion concluded that Israel’s seizure of Palestinian territory, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, violated international law, and called on the Israeli government to cease settlement activities.

It also implored all states to take necessary steps to avoid complicity in violations of Palestinian rights and to help bring the occupation to an end.

The judgement obliges Britain, as a UN member state, not to aid Israel’s occupation, and to ensure that trade and investment dealings do not reinforce it.

A letter to government signed by 16 organisations, including PCS union, Campaign Against Arms Trade, and Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), expressed their exasperation after it “failed for a whole year to respond to, let alone implement the advisory opinion.”

It goes on to call for the suspension of arms sales, trade and investment with settlements, and the existing UK-Israel Trade Partnership Agreement.

“The UK government’s failure to prohibit such commercial activity or even issue up-to-date guidance in light of the ICJ advisory opinion puts UK businesses at risk,” it warns.

“Any UK business selling goods produced in or generating revenue from the settlements benefits from the underlying criminal conduct that the ICJ identified and could be committing money laundering offences.”

More than 100 MPs and peers also wrote to the government on Thursday, calling on it to publish an official response to the advisory opinion and take concrete steps to uphold its legal obligations.

GLAN director Gearoid O Cuinn said: “The UK’s silence one year on from the ICJ’s ruling is not neutrality — it’s complicity. 

“By continuing to arm, trade with, and politically shield Israel, the UK is helping to sustain an illegal occupation that the world’s highest court has declared must end. 

“This is a moment for action, not deliberate delay.”

Senior campaigner at War on Want Neil Sammonds said: “This government must act incredibly fast or will forever be deeply tainted as the government of complicity in illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide.”

The FCDO pointed to remarks made by the Foreign Secretary to the International Development Committee on Wednesday, in which he said: “We agree that Israel should bring an end to its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as rapidly as possible, and we agree that, when it is happening in the west bank, it is completely unacceptable.”