Overview

• The High Court ruled on June 30 that exempting F-35 components from last year’s export licence suspension to Israel was lawful and refused the judicial review sought by Al-Haq and GLAN.
• Justices Stephen Males and Karen Steyn held that withdrawal from the international F-35 programme is a matter for the executive branch, not the courts.
• Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network had argued the carve-out risked facilitating violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza.
• The exemption stems from September 2024 when the government suspended roughly 30 of 350 military export licences over compliance concerns but maintained UK contributions to the F-35 supply chain.
• Britain supplies about 15 per cent of each F-35’s components and is the second-largest contributor to the fighter jet’s global spare-parts pool after the United States.