Dutch court rejects efforts to stop arms trade with Israel. The case was initiated by ten non-governmental organizations, which asked the court to ban arms exports.
A Dutch court on Thursday rejected a case brought by pro-Palestinian activists to force the Netherlands to stop arms sales and exports to Israel in connection with the war in the Gaza Strip. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
A group of ten non-governmental organizations have accused the Netherlands of not doing enough to prevent genocide in the Gaza Strip, while pursuing what they say is a “manifestly illegal” foreign policy towards Israel.
Court costs
They asked the court to impose a complete ban on the export of weapons to Israel, a ban on the export of military dogs and a ban on trading in the occupied territories.
The Court of Appeal in The Hague dismissed the organizations’ entire appeal and ordered them to pay court costs. “Although it is possible that there is a risk of genocide and serious violations of human rights, in principle it is not for the court to determine what measures the state must take to prevent such conduct,” the court said.
Dutch government measures
At the same time, the court noted that the Netherlands had already taken several measures, for example, officials did not grant a license to export military equipment in the event that there is a risk of its deployment in the Gaza Strip.
Lawyers representing the government during the trial denied that the Netherlands’ foreign policy towards Israel was illegal. According to them, the authorities always assessed individually whether to grant export licenses.
Supreme Court Decision
AFP reports that the appeals court was originally supposed to issue a verdict on October 8, but the court decided to postpone the verdict until the Supreme Court decides on a similar case. In the aforementioned case, the Supreme Court said it was up to the Dutch government to decide whether to export parts used in Israeli fighter jets. Following the decision of the Supreme Court, the Dutch government decided to maintain the existing ban on the supply of such parts.
