© NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Danny Friedman KC & Victor Kattan examine the legal case for Britain to recognise its historic responsibilities in Palestine
IN BRIEF
- In September 2026, two years after the ICJ advisory opinion, the UK belatedly accepted that Israel’s occupation is unlawful and acted on it.
- A 400-page petition served on the Government in September 2025 alleging multiple internationally wrongful acts committed by Britain in Palestine between 1917 and 1948 remains unanswered.
On 8 September 2026, the foreign secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons that the official view of the British government is that the occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful. He announced an import ban on settlement goods, sanctions on their financiers, and refusal of export licences that materially assist the occupation. He accepted that Palestinians in parts of the West Bank are being ethnically cleansed. Britain, he said, refuses to be a bystander.
This was significant, but it was two years too late. On 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that Israel’s continued presence
