Netherlands can keep delivering F-35 parts to Israel, court rules

The Netherlands can continue to export parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel, the court in The Hague ruled on Friday. Human rights organizations Oxfam Novib, Amnesty International, PAX, and The Rights Forum had asked the court to ban this in summary proceedings against the State.

The human rights organizations argued that the Dutch State violates international law by supplying Israel with parts for combat equipment, knowing that Israel is using them to violate fundamental principles of the law of war. The organizations represent the interests of Palestinian citizens in war-torn Gaza.

The Dutch State argued that it made a broad assessment in the decision to continue supplying fighter jet parts. The Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation has not yet established that Israel is violating international humanitarian law. According to the Minister, the current war situation in Gaza, which arose after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, is “very complex,” and much is still unclear.

Hamas killed around 1,400 people in terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7. Israel retaliated immediately and has been bombing the densely populated Gaza strip incessantly ever since, pausing only for a few days during a temporary ceasefire last month to exchange hostages. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, as of December 1, at least 15,000 Palestinians, including 6,150 children, have been killed. Another 36,000 have been injured, and some 7,000 people are missing under the rubble.

According to the judge in The Hague, the Minister was not obliged to reassess the license granted in 2016 for the export of F-35 parts in connection with the current conflict between Hamas and Israel. The judge established that the Minister had fulfilled the obligation to determine whether the delivery to Israel should be stopped.

As to whether the Minister “was able to reasonably arrive at her decision not to intervene and to uphold the permit,” the judge believes that he should exercise restraint. “The considerations that the Minister makes are largely of a political and other policy nature, and the judge must leave the Minister a wide degree of freedom in this regard.”

The judge ruled that the Minister had weighed the relevant interests and could reasonably arrive at her considerations and actions.

Outgoing Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation) said on X that the ruling “confirms that the State is free to shape its foreign policy.”

Director Michiel Servaes of Oxfam Novib is “very disappointed” with the judge’s ruling. The human rights organizations will very likely appeal, he said. “There are many people in Gaza, in Palestine itself, who have followed this closely. I am dreading to inform them,” said Servaes.

“We are all the more disappointed because the judge agrees on many substantive points. He says that the Netherlands does have its own responsibility here, that it is not just about the re-delivery of American items. He also says that it is clear that these jets play a crucial role in the bombing of Gaza. And he firmly establishes that there is indeed a violation of international law,” Servaes said.

According to Servaes, the fact that the summary proceedings have failed is due to a “legal aspect” that the State has introduced in its argument, namely that there would be no strict obligation to conduct a new assessment if a permit has already been issued. “That is very painful to the situation in Gaza now, and difficult to digest,” said Servaes.