A Dutch court has ordered the government to halt the delivery of parts for F-35 fighter jets used by Israel in its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
The verdict, delivered by an appeals court on Monday, said there is a “clear risk” that the parts the Netherlands is exporting are being used in “serious violations of international humanitarian law”.
The court said it is likely that Israel was using its F-35s in attacks on Gaza, which are leading to unacceptable civilian casualties. It dismissed the Dutch state’s argument that it did not have to do a new check on the permit for the exports.
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”.
Credit: aljazeera.com
