The UK Attorney-General’s Office said Attorney-General Richard Hermer would provide the government impartial legal advice on Tuesday, as local reports highlighted his past contributions to pro-Palestinian activism efforts.
“The UK continues to support Israel’s right to self-defense in accordance with international law,” a government spokesperson said. “The attorney-general is the government’s chief legal adviser and provides impartial legal advice.”
On Saturday, the Telegraph questioned Hermer’s neutrality due to the discovery of his contributions to a 2011 book on the role of corporations in the territories and possible legal action against them. The book centers around a tribunal of experts presenting evidence to support claims about the situation in the Levant.
In Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupation: Evidence from the London Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, edited by Electronic Intifada journalist Asa Winstanley, Hermer wrote a chapter called “Redress for Palestinian Victims of Human Rights Abuses in the Courts of England and Wales.”
Difficulty of legal action
Hermer detailed the difficulty of legal action against Israel through public law claims, as they would only be viable in very exact circumstances. English and Welsh public law is not relevant to foreign states and diplomats, and non-UK NGOs may have some problems proving standing.
Attacking UK government institutions for export licenses for defense items to Israel or Israeli companies can be frustrated by court precedent to only rarely interfere with foreign policy. The course in public law recommended by the attorney was a less direct approach, such as challenging public bodies to adhere to human rights standards that they were violating through interaction with Israel or Israeli companies.
Private law action also has its issues, according to Hermer’s advice. For activists pursuing tort lawfare, he noted corporate subsidiaries are treated as separate legal entities. However, Hermer said that this may not be “a bar to recovery in every case.”
To establish civil liability, the harm, knowledge of risk of harm, precautionary measures against that harm, and direct causation had to often be considered. A claim for damages against a UK government that provided goods or services “may succeed where it can be shown that damage was caused.”
In a transcript of a question and answer period for the tribunal, Hermer explored the example of claims against Israeli defense firm Elbit System building platforms used in Israeli operations.
One would have to demonstrate that the drone was manufactured by a company “domiciled” in the UK, which he noted was “forensically not always very easy,” and show that Elbit was acting unlawfully by providing the platform to the Israeli government. It would need to be proven that it was foreseeable that the weapon would be used in an unlawful way.
Hermer also listed a series of possible reforms for the UK government to facilitate legal activism, including corporate human rights responsibilities and increased scrutiny of institutional investors.
More recently, Hermer signed a 2023 letter to then-foreign secretary James Cleverly requesting that the government not provide opposition to an International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israeli policies and practices in the disputed territories.
“Over the past five decades, the government of Israel has actively pursued illegal settlement growth as a strategic policy unlawfully to annex the West Bank on a de facto basis, thwart the birth of a genuine Palestinian state, and deprive the Palestinian people of their fundamental right to self-determination,” read the letter organized by Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and the Balfour Project.
According to a 2023 Jewish Chronicle article, Hermer is Jewish and participated in a wide range of Jewish and Israeli organizations. While he had family members serving in the IDF, he believed that the Israeli military administration in the disputed territories was unlawful, damaging to Israel, and contrary to the values of tikkun olam (repairing the world).