Appeals court orders Netherlands to stop delivering F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel

Demonstrators hold flags during a protest outside the court building, amid a case of human rights groups seeking to block the Dutch government from exporting F-35 parts to Israel, The Hague, Netherlands, February 12, 2024 [Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters]

The Netherlands must stop exporting F-35 parts to Isreal, the court of appeal in The Hague ruled on Monday. “There is a clear risk that Israel’s F-35 fighter jets might be used in the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law,” the court ruled.

Human rights organizations Oxfam Novib, PAX Nederland, and The Rights Forum had taken the Dutch State to court to stop the export. They argued that the Netherlands knows Israel is using the F-35 fighter jets to bomb the Gaza Strip, and the Dutch State is, therefore, violating the laws of war by enabling these attacks on civilian populations.

Previously, the court in The Hague ruled that the deliveries could continue. The court of appeals felt differently.

“Israel does not take sufficient account of the consequences of its attacks for the civilian population. Israel’s attacks on Gaza have resulted in a disproportionate number of civilian casualties, including thousands of children,” the judges wrote. “ The Netherlands is a party to several international regulations which stipulate that if a clear risk of serious violations of international humanitarian law exists, the Netherlands has the obligation to prevent the export of military equipment.” The deliveries must stop within seven days.

Outgoing Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation is currently in Brussels. He told NOS that he is studying the verdict.

However, in response to Monday’s ruling, the Dutch government said it would appeal the order at the Supreme Court, arguing the weapons parts were crucial to Israel’s ability to protect itself from “threats in the region, for example from Iran, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon”.

The ruling followed an appeal by Amnesty International and Oxfam against a lower court decision last year that rejected their argument that supplying the parts contributed to alleged “contributing to wide-scale and serious violations of humanitarian law by Israel in Gaza”.

Human rights organisations have accused the government of being complicit in war crimes by maintaining the deliveries.

In December, a court dismissed the case. It said the government had a large degree of freedom in weighing political and policy issues on arms exports.

However, that was dismissed by the appeals court, which said political and economic concerns did not trump the clear risk of violations of the laws of war.

The appeals court instead ordered the government to block all exports of the fighter jet parts to Israel within seven days.

“It is undeniable that there is a clear risk that the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,” Judge Bas Boele said in the ruling, eliciting cheers from several people in the courtroom.

Dutch authorities said last year that it was unclear whether they had the power to intervene in the deliveries.

The Netherlands houses one of several regional warehouses from which US-made aircraft parts are distributed to countries on request. The Dutch facility has supplied Israel with at least one shipment since the start of the war.

Government lawyers also argued that Israel could easily procure parts for its F-35s elsewhere if the Dutch facility did not supply them.

The court ruling ordering the government to halt the exports can be appealed by the Dutch authorities.