Magistrates at the Court of Appeal in The Hague have ruled in favor of human rights defenders who claimed that the F 35s risked participating in attacks against civilians in the Gaza Strip.
A triple legal setback for Israel, for the United States and for the Dutch state: the Court of Appeal in The Hague ordered the government this Monday to cease its exports of parts for F-35 combat planes used by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
The Court thus ruled in favor of human rights organizations who called for the suspension of these exports. The magistrates considered that there was a risk that these parts would be used in actions violating international humanitarian law by hitting civilians.
The Dutch state defended the maintenance of these exports in the name of good relations with the United States and Israel, but the judges rejected this argument and therefore annulled a first judgment which had rejected the applicants’ request.
The F-35 parts involved in this affair are not manufactured in the Netherlands, and belong to the United States which stores them in the Netherlands from where they are then sent to partner countries via export agreements.
