In the past week, Israeli attacks have targeted and killed aid workers with both Save the Children and the World Central Kitchen. In the deadliest year on-record for aid workers, three quarters of humanitarians killed worldwide in 2024 have been killed by Israel. Attacks on Gaza’s healthcare continue to intensify, too: on Friday, Ahmed al Kahlout, head of Kamal Adwan’s Intensive Care Unit, was killed by a drone attack. Hussam Abu Safyia, the Director of Kamal Adwan in the besieged Beit Lahiya, has pleaded for international intervention to save his … [Continue Reading]

Leak reveals UK lawyers, Israeli government planned ‘special unit’ to counter human rights reporting. Here’s what we know. By Anas Ambri December 1, 2024. Leaked documents show the extent of collaboration between the pro-Israel legal advocacy group and the Israeli government, in their attempt to “counter” the work of human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. On 10 August 2017, pro-Israel advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) approached the Embassy of Israel in London with a “pitch … [Continue Reading]

The idea of establishing a “response unit” in the UK seems to have been first formulated by UK Lawyers for Israel in preparation for the 2014 meeting of the Global Coalition for Israel (GC4I), the leaked documents show. Mondoweiss previously wrote about the GC4I, a partnership between the Israeli government and pro-Israel NGOs launched in 2010 to counter the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Its 2014 gathering – the first outside Israel – happened in London. In preparation for the meeting, the Department of International … [Continue Reading]

Three years after the GC4I meeting, members of the barristers’ chambers 9 Bedford Row International (9BRI) shared with Jonathan Turner a work proposal “to further Israel’s interests within the field of international criminal law (ICL) and transnational criminal law”. The entire text of the proposal was among the documents recently leaked from the Israeli Ministry of Justice. The proposal suggested the establishment of “a rapid response unit to correct false narratives articulated by NGOs and intergovernmental organisations” regarding Israel’s discriminatory … [Continue Reading]

In February 2018, Joshua Kern attended the first edition of the Legal Network Initiative, an anti-BDS conference organised by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs in Jerusalem. UKLFI’s Jonathan Turner was also present at the conference. According to Israel National News, attendees of the conference signed a pact “to defend Israel on every possible legal front in the face of de-legitimization and boycotts.” An email sent to the Deputy Attorney General Schöndorf right after the conference suggests that the Ministry of Justice was aware … [Continue Reading]

Five years later, the same legal justifications were recently used by the Israeli government and pro-Israeli groups, as they attempted to challenge the request for arrest warrants issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. On 6 August 2024, barristers from 9BRI submitted a brief to the ICC on behalf of the Israel-based International Association of Jewish Lawyers, questioning the rationale for the arrest warrants request. Among other things, the brief noted that “the State of Israel [is] a democratic State … [Continue Reading]