Lawfare for apartheid: How UK institutions are weaponised to silence solidarity with Palestine

A devastating new report has exposed how legal and regulatory tools are being systematically manipulated in Britain by leading pro-Israel lobby groups to criminalise Palestinian solidarity and suppress dissent. Titled Britain’s Apartheid Apologists, the investigation by CAGE documents how UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) and the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) have instrumentalised British institutions to protect Israel’s apartheid regime while targeting those who challenge it.

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Scrutinising the roles of UKLFI and CAA, the report highlights their exploitation of regulatory systems and charity status to suppress free expression and shield Israel from accountability over its practice of apartheid and human rights violations. Despite enjoying charitable status, both organisations have very opaque funding sources, raising serious questions about transparency and potential foreign influence.

Drawing on exhaustive research, the report charts how UKLFI and CAA have transformed themselves into pivotal agents of repression, weaponising regulatory frameworks and employing lawfare to intimidate pro-Palestinian voices, including doctors, academics, students and charities. It reveals their symbiotic relationship with the Israeli government and the extent to which British institutions have enabled their operations.

Set against the international obligations outlined by the International Court of Justice in its 2024 advisory opinion on the illegality of Israel’s occupation, the report argues that UKLFI and CAA’s actions raise serious legal and political concerns for the UK. In its 2024 advisory opinion, the court declared Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, as unlawful and in breach of international law. 

The court affirmed that policies underpinning Israel’s illegal occupation amount to racial segregation and apartheid under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and reiterated that all UN member states must neither recognise nor aid the maintenance of such a regime. 

Crucially ICJ’s landmark ruling place a direct obligation on the UK to ensure that its institutions, including charitable and regulatory bodies, do not support or legitimise Israel’s system of racial domination.

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CAGE warns that UKLFI and CAA’s activities are incompatible with UK charity law, which prohibits support for racism and incitement of hatred. Despite this, both organisations continue to benefit from charitable status, which the report argues is a regulatory failure that enables institutional racism.

 “Britain faces a democratic emergency, with free expression under sustained attack from a network of bad-faith actors who collaborate with willing and racist government institutions to suppress popular opposition to Zionism and support for the Palestinian people,” said Dr Asim Qureshi, CAGE’s Research Director.

The report also includes a powerful foreword by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), which condemns the misuse of anti-discrimination laws to criminalise pro-Palestinian activism and equates Zionism with a racist political agenda. IJAN denounced the suppression of Jewish anti-Zionist voices, calling it a distortion of Jewish values and history.

“The CAA and UKLFI’s work has contributed to an intensifying wave of repression,” said IJAN. “Wearing a pin or keffiyeh for Palestine becomes a sackable offence; speaking out against the Gaza genocide risks referrals to regulators; and tearing down factories arming genocide results in lengthy custodial sentences.”

The report details how UKLFI and CAA rely on the discredited International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism to label criticism of Israel as anti-Jewish racism. This tactic has stifled open debate and created a climate of fear in universities, legal institutions, and civil society.

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Significantly a High Court judgment issued this month clarified that criticism of Israel — including calling it an apartheid state or a racist endeavour — does not in itself constitute anti-Semitism under UK law. The ruling affirmed that such political expression is protected under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, casting further doubt on the legal credibility of using the IHRA definition to silence pro-Palestinian speech. This judgment undercuts the legal weaponisation of the IHRA definition by groups like UKLFI and CAA. 

The conduct of Robert Jenrick, former Immigration Minister and current Shadow Justice Secretary, is spotlighted as emblematic of political complicity in the crackdown of pro-Palestinian activism. He is accused of pressuring regulatory bodies to target professionals who voiced support for Palestine and backing legislation designed to criminalise the peaceful Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. 

More broadly, the report critiques sections of the British political establishment, across party lines, for enabling the silencing of pro-Palestinian advocacy. It argues that bipartisan support for groups like UKLFI and CAA has granted them undue influence in shaping public discourse and policy, while failing to uphold democratic principles and the UK’s international obligations.

CAGE outlines urgent recommendations, including a judge-led inquiry into foreign influence operations, reform of professional regulators, legal protections for professional independence, political accountability, and media reform to rectify bias in reporting on Palestine.

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