Pro-Israel lawyer condemned for 'sickening' comments as he says Gaza famine may help with 'obesity'

The head of a UK-based pro-Israel legal group has sparked outrage after suggesting that famine caused by Israel’s war on Gaza could lead to improved life expectancy by reducing obesity.

According to The Guardian, Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), made the comments in a letter to the Co-operative Group while lobbying against a motion calling for the supermarket to stop selling Israeli produce.

The motion cited an estimated death toll of 186,000 in Gaza, drawn from a 2024 Lancet letter projecting direct and indirect fatalities.

Turner dismissed the death toll as “totally false and misleading” and went further, stating that the figure failed to account for supposed health "benefits" of the war.

"The [Lancet] letter also ignored factors that may increase average life expectancy in Gaza," he wrote, "bearing in mind that one of the biggest health issues in Gaza prior to the current war was obesity". He added that a reduction in access to confectionery and cigarettes could, in his view, increase longevity.

His remarks have been widely condemned as grotesque and dehumanising.

"As children in the Gaza Strip face the growing risk of starvation, illness and death, the suggestion by the head of UK Lawyers for Israel that they might benefit from weight loss is utterly sickening.

"These repulsive comments illustrate exactly what it means to be ‘for Israel’ and how low its apologists are prepared to sink in their attempts to justify genocide in Gaza," Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said, as reported by The Guardian.

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu), described the comments as "atrocious views".

"How very kind of Israel to put 2.3 million Palestinians on an enforced diet to improve their obesity levels," he wrote on X.

As of May 2025, Gaza’s health ministry reports over 52,787 people have been killed since Israel launched its war on the territory following the 7 October Hamas attacks. The true death toll however is estimated to be much higher, with thousands of uncounted victims buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

According to The Lancet, average life expectancy in Gaza has plummeted by nearly 35 years - almost half of the pre-war figure of 75.5 years - due to sustained bombardment, disease, and hunger.

UKLFI, whose patrons include prominent legal and political figures such as Michael Howard, David Pannick KC, and former Supreme Court judge John Dyson, has a history of campaigning to suppress Palestinian expression in the UK.

In 2023, a UKLFI complaint led to the removal of Palestinian children’s artwork from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, after the group claimed it made Jewish patients feel "vulnerable, harassed and victimised".

More recently, it has threatened the UK government with legal action for suspending arms export licenses to Israel.

Turner doubled down on his remarks, insisting to The Guardian that they were "accurate and objective".

But critics argue his statements reflect a deliberate moral deflection, part of a wider effort by supporters of Israel to reframe the systematic starvation of the Palestinian population in Gaza as an issue of public health, rather than a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law directly caused by Israel.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels. According to UN agencies, more than half a million people are facing famine-level hunger, with aid agencies warning that Israel’s blockade and bombing campaign have created conditions of deliberate mass starvation.

UN Special Rapporteurs have described the situation as "man-made starvation" and a form of collective punishment, while international legal experts warn it may constitute a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.