• The first European court to ban a weapon export to Israel
• Could this have a trickle effect on other countries?
The Dutch government is now obliged from next Monday to halt the delivery of all F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel after the Court of Appeal ruled it to be against international law. The case was initially brought up by three human rights groups last year: Oxfam’s Dutch affiliate, PAX, and The Rights Forum.
The groups argued that the delivery of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel could make the Netherlands complicit in war crimes committed by Israel. Before the court ruled on the case, Dutch lawyers working for the government had said in their defence that it was not clear whether authorities even had the power to intervene in the deliveries because they are a US-run operation. They also said the US could deliver them from elsewhere, if not from the Netherlands. The US-owned F-35 fighter jet parts are stored in a warehouse in the Dutch town of Woensdrecht and then distributed to whomever the US requests.
The United States used a warehouse in the Netherlands to ship F-35 parts to israel
The initial ruling made by a lower court in the Netherlands said that it was likely the export of F-35 parts contributed to a violation of the laws of war but stopped short of calling for a halt to exports. The district court said in December, “The considerations that the minister makes are to a large extent of a political and policy nature, and judges should leave the minister a large amount of freedom.” This, however, was appealed, and a decision was reached by the Court of Appeal on Monday ordering the Netherlands to halt all F-35-partexports and giving a 7-day period in which to do so. The Dutch government is obliged to follow; however, it’s possible that authorities might decide to take the case to the Netherlands Supreme Court. This would elongate the process and would still mean that in between the time that a ruling by the Supreme Court and the current decision is reached, it would still be prohibited for Dutch authorities to export the parts. Is it likely the Dutch government will lengthen their time spent in court? So far, the Dutch authorities have shown no sign of taking the case to a higher court; however, if this leads to a domino effect of other bans and exports from the Netherlands to Israel, it’s likely they may deem it necessary to do so.
This is a big symbolic win for the Palestinian people and may just be the beginning
It’s likely, after the recent ruling on Monday, that other human rights groups across Europe may be encouraged to push for export bans on weapons through legal means. The Netherlands is the first country in which a ban on some weapon exports has been implemented and may have a domino effect on other European countries. It may also pave the way for human rights groups in the Netherlands to target Israeli products that are linked to settler colonialism in the West Bank or to the IDF through legal means. If this succeeds, it may also help propel a domino effect across Europe.
Regardless of if results were to continue or if it were to remain stagnant with this one court win that the Palestinian people have attained, this is still a symbolic win that will help in the change of the narrative of the concept that Israel has the right to defend itself. History will remember how the West chose to break the laws they helped create to back a genocide in Gaza.
