Netherlands: Human rights organizations seek to prevent the arrival of F-35 aircraft parts to Israel

Lawyers for human rights groups have asked a court in The Hague to order the Netherlands to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts that could eventually reach Israel, including parts sent to the United States to build fighter jets for the Israeli military.

The lawsuit, initiated by human rights groups including the Dutch arm of Oxfam, is based on another local court ruling issued last February that prevents the Netherlands from exporting parts of F-35 aircraft to Israel due to fears that they will be used in violation of international humanitarian law in war. In the Gaza Strip, as reported by Reuters on Friday.

According to lawyers for human rights organizations, the Dutch state has stopped the direct export of aircraft parts to Israel, but it continues to deliver combat aircraft parts to the United States and other countries, which are then sent or used in aircraft heading to Israel.

“The state must effectively prevent those parts of the Netherlands from reaching Israel in a roundabout way,” said lawyer Lisbeth Ziegfeld.

Dutch state lawyers responded to the court on Friday, saying that “the rights groups have a flawed interpretation of the previous court ruling, and that the final legal destination of the component parts is the country of production, not the country where the final product may reach.”

“In these extraditions, the United States (is) the final destination,” as European regulations make clear, said lawyer Reimer Veldhaus, adding that “the Netherlands is committed to the previous court decision.”

The court is scheduled to issue its decision on July 12.

On February 12, a court in the Netherlands issued a decision to stop all exports of spare parts for F-35 aircraft to Israel, after a request was submitted by human rights organizations ordering the Netherlands to stop delivering spare parts for aircraft used by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

At the time, human rights organizations, including Oxfam, confirmed that providing Israel with these parts contributed to violations of international law.

The case concerns spare parts owned by the United States, which are stored in the Netherlands, before being sent to partner countries, including Israel, under export agreements.

According to Dutch media, the Netherlands sought to circumvent the ban on delivering combat aircraft parts to Israel, as the Dutch Foreign Ministry searched for alternative ways to deliver the parts, according to a previous report by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS.

She added that the government is studying ways to deliver the parts through third parties such as the United States, instead of delivering them directly to Israel.

The US-backed Israeli war, which has been ongoing since October 7, has resulted in more than 124,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of dozens of children.