Business Leaders for Peace

The Letter

The open letter from business to the UK Government, the Government's reply, and the leaders who signed it.

In May 2025, a small group of people working in responsible and sustainable business in the UK came together to try to mobilise their networks to give more businesses more of a voice when it came to promoting peace and to protesting genocide and war crimes.

Over the course of the summer of 2025, almost 1,400 business leaders signed it. It was delivered to No. 10 on 20 October 2025. On 28 January 2026, the UK government responded.

The letter, the reply and the signatories are listed here.

The Letter

20 October 2025

Dear Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary

We write as leaders and professionals from UK businesses and organisations committed to responsible governance, human rights, peace, and international law. We are appalled by the escalating atrocities and grave violations in Gaza and urgently call on the UK Government to act.

This moment calls for moral courage and leadership. We recognise both the need of business for a secure, stable international context in which to operate, and our responsibility as business leaders in creating it through ethical leadership. We cannot build a just, regenerative, or sustainable future without defending the values that underpin it: peace, accountability, and international humanitarian law. Nobody can thrive in a world where impunity prevails.

We welcomed the joint statement by the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Canada of 19 May 2025 condemning both the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October 2023 – including the deliberate targeting of civilians and the taking of hostages in clear violation of international law – and the Israeli Government’s wholly disproportionate military offensive, the withholding of aid to the Palestinian people, and the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.

However, we have reached a critical juncture. The UK Government must now go further and take immediate, concrete action to uphold its legal obligations and prevent further atrocity.

The 1,200 Israeli lives lost in the 7 October attacks, the civilians taken hostage, and the families still waiting in agony for their release are grave crimes under international law. However, the Israeli Government’s ongoing military campaign amounts to an unrelenting and indefensible assault on civilians, breaching both moral boundaries and the core principles of the Geneva Conventions. More than 60,000 people — many of them women and children — have now been killed, with civil infrastructure decimated and essential systems, including hospitals, schools, water, and communications, deliberately targeted or destroyed.

As starvation takes hold in Gaza, these acts of genocide now threaten to precipitate the gravest stage yet, violating the most basic tenets of international humanitarian law. This cannot be normalised. It must not continue.

Back in 2023, The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) called on all states to take all reasonable measures within their power to prevent genocide in Gaza. The failure to act since makes the need for urgent intervention all the more critical NOW.

We add our voices to those already demanding the following actions:

  1. The full and unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, at scale, and with urgency, by qualified aid agencies.
  2. The cessation of all UK arms transfers — including parts — to Israel in line with the UK’s legal obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty (which prohibits transfers where they could be ‘used to commit acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes’).
  3. The introduction of targeted sanctions against all individuals and entities credibly accused of violating international law, including war crimes.
  4. Support for international legal mechanisms, including investigations by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC), and full UK diplomatic support to secure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

As business leaders, we also call on the UK Government to:

Partial measures are not enough to prevent UK complicity in breaches of international law.

Current efforts must go further to close gaps in enforcement.

The UK must ensure that no business – whether through products, services, or supply chains – is contributing to these atrocities, directly or indirectly.

Recognising that this letter is a first step, signatories will support the UK Government with an ongoing process of reflection and action — reviewing our operations, supply chains, financial flows, and influence to help foster peace, uphold human rights, and strengthen respect for international law.

We see this not only as a moral imperative, but as a matter of professional responsibility — consistent with our duty to act in the best interests of long-term societal and economic resilience.

We invite all business leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals across the private sector, charities, and civil society to add to the chorus of UK voices calling for immediate action.

The Reply

From: Hamish Falconer MP Minister for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH

Our ref: N10#2025/40311

28 January 2026

Dear Business Leaders For Peace

Thank you for your correspondence of 20 October on behalf of your co-signees about Israel and Palestine. I am replying as the Minister responsible for the Middle East. I apologise for the delay in replying to you, this was due to an administrative error.

As you will be aware, on 17 November, the United Nations Security Council formally endorsed the 20-point peace plan proposed by the United States in September, and – alongside our international partners – the UK is now working tirelessly to support the implementation of that plan. The immediate priority is to maintain the ceasefire, secure safe and unrestricted access to Gaza for the UN relief teams and other humanitarian organisations, and get aid flooding into Gaza at the pace and volume that is required to match the scale of the current crisis.

On Monday 13 October, the Prime Minister announced a £20 million humanitarian aid package to deliver essential water, sanitation, and hygiene services to tens of thousands of civilians across Gaza. In total, we have committed over £100 million to Palestine this year, including for the provision of life-saving aid into Gaza. UK support so far has meant over 430,000 people have received essential healthcare, more than 647,000 have received food, and 300,000 people have improved access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. Our partnership with UK-Med has facilitated more than 650,000 patient consultations in Gaza. However, we are clear that much more must be done to deliver humanitarian relief to all those who need it, and that the Israeli government are obliged under the terms of the 20- point plan to lift all remaining barriers to the flow of aid, open all crossings into Gaza, and remove the restrictions that they have recently put in place on access for NGOs. On 30 December, the UK issued a joint statement alongside several of our international partners calling on Israel to take these necessary actions, which you can read at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/jointstatementon-the-gaza-humanitarian-response.

On the issue of arms exports, the UK operates a robust system of export controls, set out in the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. They state that items may not be exported where there is a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). As soon as this Government took office, we ordered a review into Israel’s compliance with IHL, which concluded that Israel is not committed to upholding IHL in Gaza and that there was a clear risk that UK exports for use by Israel in the Gaza conflict might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of IHL.

As a result, those export licences were suspended, and remain suspended, and the UK categorically does not export any bombs, ammunition or any weapons for use in operations in Gaza or the West Bank. We are not aware of any comparable country taking more action than we have to prevent exports to the IDF for use in Gaza. We have refused more licences to Israel in the last year than had been refused in total since 2015.

More than half of the remaining export licences for Israel are for civilian goods, including IT security software, food testing chemicals, and university and lab equipment. Most military licences do not go to the Israeli authorities. Many are for equipment for commercial or civilian use, such as product testing or body-armour for journalists. Another group of licences are for components which go to Israeli manufacturing companies before being re exported to a third country, including many to NATO allies. In these cases, it is not military equipment for use by Israel or in Israel and the Israeli government is not involved. Any action to suspend these licences is unlikely to impact Israel’s military operations in Gaza but would undermine our allies’ defences.

In addition to our action on arms exports, this Government has also introduced sanctions on extremist individuals and entities responsible for perpetrating and supporting acts of violence carried out against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

On 20 May 2025, the Government announced sanctions targeting three individuals, including prominent settler leader Daniella Weiss, as well as two illegal outposts and two organisations that have supported, incited, and promoted violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank, following similar action against three outposts and four organisations in October 2024. These individuals and entities are now subject to measures including financial restrictions, travel bans, and director disqualifications.

On 10 June 2025, the UK imposed additional sanctions, targeted at far-right Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, for their role in inciting settler violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank - violence that has led to the death of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of whole towns and villages. We acted alongside Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, all of whom also announced their own measures on 10 June 2025.

These sanctions demonstrate our determination to deter and provide accountability for this violence. We continue to keep these issues under review but it would not be appropriate to speculate about any future sanctions designations as to do so could reduce their impact.

We will continue to do all that we can to seize this chance for a better future and to secure lasting peace and security in the region, both for the people of Israel and the people of Palestine.

Yours ever,

HAMISH FALCONER MP Minister for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan

Signatures