A human rights group has launched an attempt to mount a private prosecution alleging British citizens unlawfully went to fight for Israel.
An application to a magistrates court for a summons against a named individual was lodged on Monday.
The highly unusual prosecution is being brought by the International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP). The human rights group intends to argue in court that named Britons joined a foreign army at war with a state, Palestine, which the UK was not fighting.
It claims that waging war with a foreign force is a breach of section 4 of the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870. The act makes it an offence for any person to accept or agree a commission or engagement in the military service of any foreign state at war with another foreign state that is at peace with the UK government.
The ICJP has named one individual in the attempted prosecution but has gathered evidence against more than 10 British citizens.
To enhance the prospects of a successful prosecution and prevent the case being prejudiced, the ICJP is not naming the individuals they want to be arrested.
The ICJP accuses the Israel Defense Forces of conducting a war that is not confined to Hamas but is against all Palestinians and Palestine itself, a state now recognised by the UK.
The group says it needs to prove the defendant is a British subject, accepted a commission or engagement in the Israeli armed forces, that Israel was at war with Palestine, that Palestine is a foreign state and finally that Palestine was at peace with the UK.
Israeli domestic law does not require any person outside its territory, including Israeli citizens who are British subjects, to accept or agree to accept any commission or engagement in the military. This means that British nationals who fought for the IDF did so voluntarily.
The ICJP says multiple and repeated military activities directed at civilians and civilian infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza show Israel has been at war with all Palestine.
It claims Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, as determined by the international court of justice in advisory opinions issued in July last year and again this week.
