No discussion of campaigns targeting supporters of Palestine in Britain can end without mentioning the group UK Lawyers for Israel .
Over the past three years, UK Lawyers for Israel has intensified its intimidation campaigns, not only to silence voices supporting the Palestinian people and opposing Israel but also to pressure institutions that refer to Palestine and its history and do not endorse the Zionist narrative of Israel's occupation and wars in the region.
The group was founded 15 years ago under the slogans of "supporting Israel through legal skills", "combating delegitimisation", and opposing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, known as BDS. It is chaired by Jonathan Rocks, who played a major role in the group's efforts to stop the Gaza flotilla in July 2011. Lawyer Caroline Turner now manages it.
The objectives of UK Lawyers for Israel include: contributing "to creating a climate of opinion supportive of Israel in the United Kingdom"; organising training courses for lawyers in international law and Israeli affairs "to enable them to participate in public debates in a balanced way"; assisting and encouraging university students "who need protection from antisemitism and hate speech"; and "strengthening, supporting and cooperating with similarly orientated groups in the United States, Europe, Israel and other countries". 'Spray and pray' Politically, the lawyers regularly participate in events related to Israel and Palestine and frequently visit the House of Commons to meet members and provide evidence reflecting Israel's viewpoint to specialist parliamentary committees.
In 2016, the group established a charitable arm under the same name to support educational and legal initiatives related to Israel and international law. The charity "facilitates fundraising from donors in the United Kingdom" with the aim of "promoting legal awareness regarding the State of Israel and the causes and effects of antisemitism".
UK Lawyers for Israel receives patronage from several members of the House of Lords and other politicians, including Lord Michael Howard, the former Conservative Party leader; Lord David Pannick, legal adviser to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson; and Baroness Ruth Deech, a former BBC trustee. Patrons and supporters also include Sir Ivan Lawrence, one of Britain's most experienced criminal lawyers.
Since its creation, the group has employed what its critics describe as "lawfare" against Israel's opponents and critics, or supporters of Palestine, whether individuals or institutions. The primary tool in this campaign is what legal experts call “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation”, or SLAPPs. The group sends letters to targets, suggesting the possibility of legal action.
This activity is unlawful, according to Anna Ost, senior legal officer at the European Legal Support Centre. She says the group operates as a law firm but is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in England. Ost compares the lawyers' strategy to "spray and pray... on a large scale", using letters that cite provisions from anti-terrorism, equality and anti-racism laws, as well as the non-legally binding definition of antisemitism promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Investigation 'still ongoing' The Public Interest Law Centre regards the legal threats issued by UK Lawyers for Israel as a weapon "designed to restrict freedom of expression on matters of public interest". Publications by the centre state that the purpose of this weapon is now "to intimidate and silence solidarity work with Palestine". This was the argument made in a joint complaint submitted by the centre and the European Legal Support Centre, both of which the group lists as organisations it seeks to suppress, to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in mid-August last year.
The complaint outlined the conduct of the group and its director, arguing that this conduct constituted "serious breaches of the Authority's principles and code of conduct".
It called for an investigation into why the lawyers' group is permitted to operate "as an unregulated law firm". It urged the regulation and oversight of UK Lawyers for Israel and its "appropriately sanctioned". The two organisations made no secret of their ultimate objective: ending the "intimidation and silencing of solidarity efforts with Palestine". They said the complaint formed part of their "broader commitment to defending freedom of expression and confronting the misuse of law to curb civil society and rights". To accelerate the process, the complaint called for Turner's membership to be "suspended to prevent further breaches of professional standards" and for "a precedent" to be established against the misuse of legal threats.
The two organisations say that between January 2022 and May 2025, UK Lawyers for Israel sent at least eight threatening letters to individuals and organisations active in the Palestine solidarity movement.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed to The New Arab that there are multiple complaints, not just one, against the group. Although a spokesperson declined to disclose details, she confirmed that the "investigation is still ongoing", indicating that the authority is taking the complaints seriously, particularly as they have been submitted by experienced lawyers determined to pursue them.
The group did not deny sending letters explaining "how laws or applicable regulatory requirements may have been breached". However, it described the complaint as "a series of unfounded allegations". In a statement published on its website, it said the allegations were "a means of restricting its work in assisting hundreds of Jewish individuals every year". Regarding the demand that Turner be suspended to prevent misuse of legal threats, the statement denied that the group engaged in "any activity that could be described as a strategic intimidation lawsuit against public participation".
On why it is not subject to the Solicitors Regulation Authority's rules, the group said it was "not required to register as a law firm" because it "does not conduct litigation on behalf of any client". However, it added that it "operates to the highest professional standards, using available laws to combat the oldest form of hatred".
UK Lawyers for Israel relies on people's lack of legal knowledge and fear of litigation, particularly ordinary people who join demonstrations supporting Palestine and opposing Israel in their hundreds of thousands and discuss what they regard as Israeli genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people.
A report by the European Legal Support Centre, which created a database called the British Repression Index for the Palestine solidarity movement, found that UK Lawyers for Israel is the most active Zionist arm in the campaign of legal intimidation. It said the group was responsible for 128 incidents of pursuit in the context of a campaign against pro-Palestinian voices . 'They accused me of aggravated trespass' The threatening letters are written in a language intended to alarm recipients. They begin by describing UK Lawyers for Israel as "an association of lawyers who support Israel and seek to ensure that the rights of Israel and Israelis are respected", adding that its patrons are "some of the most respected lawyers in the United Kingdom".
As the letters continued, the European Legal Support Centre and the Public Interest Law Centre increased pressure on the group. In a formal complaint submitted on 21 May this year to the Bar Standards Board, they requested a formal investigation into the role of these "distinguished lawyers" in sending the letters. The complaint identified three lawyers: Lord Pannick, Lord Anthony Grabiner and Stephen Hockman. All hold the rank of King's Counsel, a title granted to some British lawyers in recognition of their expertise and distinction.
Responding to questions from The New Arab, the board said that when a complaint is received, any action is "usually conducted in strict confidence unless it results in a hearing before a disciplinary tribunal". If that stage is reached, "the hearings will be held in public".
As a legal expert, Anna Ost believes that references to these lawyers in the letters give them "strength, prestige and an apparent legal authority that may not actually exist in the content of the letters themselves". The New Arab reviewed three such letters bearing the names of figures with significant political and legal standing. They contained clear references to laws likely to create fear that recipients may have committed criminal offences. The group's targets included a broad range of individuals and civil society organisations. Examples included attempts to persuade organisations to cancel events held by pro-Palestinian groups, pressure schools to discipline teachers for wearing Palestine badges, or encourage the National Health Service to adopt policies preventing staff from displaying support for Palestine through badges or other symbols on uniforms. In February 2023, a letter from UK Lawyers for Israel led Chelsea and Westminster Hospital to remove drawings by Palestinian children depicting their suffering under Israeli occupation from one of its corridors.
Sajia Iqbal is one of the campaign's victims. She is a history teacher, and her only offence, in the eyes of UK Lawyers for Israel, was participating in the economic boycott campaign against Israel. One day, she took part in a unique action. Together with friends, she visited a Sainsbury's branch, collected Israeli products from the shelves, placed them in a trolley, and presented the trolley, along with a protest letter, to the store manager. The manager, Sajia, told The New Arab that she was friendly and smiling, and thanked them for the letter.
Sajia says she knows how UK Lawyers for Israel discovered her workplace, to which they sent a "legal letter" alleging that the school employed someone who had committed the "crime of aggravated trespass", was not a suitable role model for pupils and "had to be dealt with". Following this, the school management treated her poorly, she says. During an internal investigation, she maintained that she had "exercised her democratic right and participated in the boycott action in a personal rather than professional capacity". The poor treatment continued. Eventually, Sajia saw no option but to take the school to an employment tribunal.
The group relies on people's ignorance of the law and fear of litigation to exploit them. Even where organisations know there is no legal basis for the group's correspondence, such as the European Legal Support Centre, the aim is "to drain legal resources", according to Anna. The New Arab witnessed pressure exerted by UK lawyers for Israel on the British Museum when it revealed that the lawyers had pressured and boasted about pressuring museum management into removing the name Palestine from some historical and archaeological displays in its Middle East galleries.
The group invoked equality legislation and allegations of anti-Jewish prejudice. Mandatory declaration Tara Marwani, monitoring officer at the European Legal Support Centre in Britain, says that legal threat letters sent to institutions can lead to "tangible retaliatory reactions" against staff members, including "disciplinary action or dismissal" because of their solidarity with Palestine, as well as "the smearing of organisations through coordinated campaigns and the cancellation of events under pressure". Marwani told The New Arab that this strategy is "systematic and aims to criminalise solidarity with Palestine and conceal complicity in genocide".
However, UK Lawyers for Israel argues that "it is supporters of Israel who cannot publicly display the Israeli flag or wear the Star of David... without being spat at, shouted at or even assaulted".
Resistance to these lawyers' activities has not been limited to complaints about their legal conduct. Some organisations affected by the group's actions have also targeted its charitable arm. The Charity Commission has been investigating a complaint about the group's charity's conduct for the past 11 months. In a statement to The New Arab, a spokesperson said the complaint concerns the charity's "compliance" with Commission regulations and "concerns regarding the organisation's activities, including the relationship between it and UK Lawyers for Israel". Human rights organisations Cage International and Led By Donkeys submitted the complaint against the charity, which is registered with the commission, in the middle of last year. According to the spokesperson, no conclusions have yet been reached, adding that the commission "does not set a specific timeframe" for completing such investigations.
Despite resisting criticism, the complaints have already achieved one important result. The group was forced to reiterate that it is "not authorised to provide legal services and cannot provide legal services such as litigation". Yet, it "can recommend suitable authorised providers when necessary or requested".
It also acknowledged that in some matters it "acts as an organisation, submitting legal petitions, providing or seeking information, or challenging the conduct of public authorities, companies, organisations or individuals".
For this reason, Anna and other legal experts advise that, in most cases, organisations should treat threatening letters from the group as "vexatious complaints intended to target, cancel, silence and intimidate people" and "not regard them as serious legal threats".
However, given the group's continued efforts to "suppress people through these methods", Anna expects further complaints to be filed against it and urges people to abandon their fear. "In every case we have reviewed, the lawyers' group has not brought proceedings before the courts," she said. "They have threatened discrimination claims and Equality Act violations , but they have not backed this up with actual legal proceedings."
For that reason, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is conducting a political and public campaign encouraging Britons to submit complaints to all relevant bodies as a means of resisting pressure from UK Lawyers for Israel on the Palestine movement in Britain. Article translated from Arabic by Afrah Almatwari. To read the original, click here .