A group of families of Gaza Strip victims, who hold British citizenship, filed a lawsuit in London against the British oil company BP, claiming that it violated human rights laws by supplying the Israeli army with crude oil.
The plaintiffs, who are British citizens of Palestinian origin, sent a letter to the company before the lawsuit accusing it of violating its stated human rights obligations under international law.
BP owns and operates the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, through which Azerbaijan supplies crude oil to Israel. The pipeline, which passes through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey and is then transported by ship, provides 28% of Israel’s crude oil supplies.
Oil supplies are considered extremely important for the Israeli war on Gaza, which led to genocide and ethnic cleansing of the population of the Strip and resulted in more than 153,000 martyrs and wounded Palestinians.
Oil from this pipeline is reportedly sent to a refinery that produces jet fuel for military planes that drop tons of rockets on Gaza.
🚨BREAKING-BP Oil🚨
ICJP will be acting on behalf of British Palestinian Claimants, taking legal action against @BP_plc for alleged human rights violations arising from their supply of crude oil to Israel.
The Claimants are UK citizens who have lost family members in Gaza.
— ICJP (@ICJPalestine) December 23, 2024
The text of the letter stated, “Israel relies heavily on imports of crude oil and its derivatives to operate its huge fleet of combat aircraft, tanks, and other military and operational vehicles, as well as bulldozers involved in the destruction of Palestinian homes and olive groves to make way for illegal Israeli settlements.”
The text adds that “some fuel goes from refineries directly to the armed forces, while most of the rest appears to go to regular gas stations where military personnel can refuel their vehicles under a government contract.”
The letter requests that any case be heard in a British court as BP and the plaintiffs are resident in England.
The legal letter said BP violated the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as well as the prohibition of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity under customary international law and obligations under its own policies, which require BP to avoid contributing to human rights violations.
The main plaintiffs are Britons of Palestinian origin who have suffered significant losses as a result of the conflict. Among them is a British citizen who lost 16 members of his family due to Israeli air strikes, while his remaining family members in Gaza face miserable humanitarian conditions.
Another plaintiff, a British-Palestinian, whose relatives in Gaza suffered death and displacement, some of whom were martyred because they were denied access to medical care and essential supplies. Other plaintiffs have suffered catastrophic physical and psychological harm including amputation and loss of family members.
The letter demands that the British company immediately stop supplying and facilitating oil supplies to Israel through the pipeline, and also demands that it fully disclose relevant documents, including policies, contracts and risk assessments regarding the oil supplied to Israel.
The plaintiffs are also demanding that the company admit liability, commit to mediation to assess the damages, and make a public apology for the damage caused.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a genocidal war on Gaza, with American support, that has resulted in more than 153,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing persons, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the… The worst humanitarian disasters in the world.