Court rejects demands to ban the Netherlands from supplying spare parts for F-35 to Israel
Kyiv • UNN
Dutch court rejects demand of human rights groups to stop export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel from the Netherlands
A court in The Hague has rejected demands by human rights groups to block the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel supplied by the Netherlands, Reuters reports, UNN writes.
Details
"A Dutch court on Friday rejected demands by human rights groups to block the Dutch government from exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel that they say contributed to war crimes committed in the blockaded Gaza Strip," the article says.
The judges said they should leave the Dutch government free rein when it comes to weighing political issues in arms export decisions.
Human rights groups argued that Israel had used airplanes to launch attacks in Gaza that killed civilians. They argued that preventing this was more important than the Netherlands fulfilling its commercial or political obligations to its allies.
The judges agreed that the F-35s probably contributed to the bombing of Gaza and possible violations of the laws of war, but indicated that they could only decide whether the government had made a reasonable assessment in allowing the exports to continue, the newspaper writes.
As a reminder,
In September, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant submitted an official letter of request (LOR) to the United States and Lockheed Martin for the purchase of a third squadron of 25 F-35s.
