A dual UK-Israel national recently successfully defeated an attempt to prosecute him for serving in the IDF.

In November 2025 a UK organisation called the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) applied in a UK court to institute a private prosecution against a dual UK-Israel citizen under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 (FEA). The soldier was a reservist in the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and was living in Britain when the invasion by Hamas from Gaza into Israel took place on 7 October 2023. He immediately reported for duty on 8 October 2023, but this was not considered an enlistment by the court. He had already previously enlisted and served in the IDF.

The private prosecution application was brought by a British organisation which described itself as ‘an independent organisation of lawyers, politicians and academics’ concerned with the situation in Palestine, ‘who support the rights of Palestinians and aim to protect their rights through the law’. On 31 October 2024, UK Lawyers for Israel intervened on behalf of the soldier and in March 2026 the case was heard in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court before Senior District Judge Goldspring.

The FEA is legislation dating back to the Victorian era and was specifically aimed at preventing British nationals from serving as mercenaries in foreign conflicts to preserve British neutrality or serve in armed forces hostile to Britain.  The judge stated, “Successive UK Governments have explicitly stated that British dual nationals have the right to serve in the armed forces of their other state of nationality, including the IDF.”

The judge ruled that the FEA does not apply to dual nationals serving in the armed forces of the additional state of nationality. It was emphasised that this would be an absurd overreach that would criminalise, for example, Indian or Pakistani Commonwealth citizens enlisting........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)