Rights Groups Seek to Block Netherlands From Sending Fighter Jet Parts to Israel

Facts

• Lawyers for three human right organizations, namely Oxfam Novib, Amnesty International and The Rights Forum, argued in the Hague District Court on Monday that the Dutch government must stop sending F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel.¹
• Their suit claims that the Netherlands could become complicit in alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip by shipping weapons parts to Israel, among several other partners, via existing export agreements.²
• They further asked the court to issue an injunction halting the exports that are stored in a warehouse in the town of Woensdrecht, with Liesbeth Zegveld saying that Dutch customs asked the government if it wanted to continue exports. A verdict, which could be appealed, is expected within two weeks.³
• According to the NRC news outlet, the Dutch foreign ministry was aware of concerns over the Israeli campaign in Gaza but it opted not to stop a delivery of the fighter plane parts. The Netherlands has previously refused to export military goods to Israel on 29 occasions between 2004 and 2020.⁴
• Gaza's health ministry reports that the conflict has left almost 16K people in the Gaza strip — the majority of whom were women and children — dead since Israel launched its air and ground offensive in retaliation to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in which 1.2K people were killed and 240 taken hostage.⁵
• Though rights groups claim the response has been disproportionate, even alleging a genocide is underway, Israel denies committing war crimes. Meanwhile, lawyers for the Dutch state argue that concerns are legitimate but that other factors have to be weighed, including Israel's right to self-defense.⁶

Sources: ¹Courthouse News Service, ²France 24, ³Associated Press, ⁴Dutch News, ⁵Middle East Monitor and ⁶Reuters.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Al Jazeera. It's clear that Israel has violated international humanitarian law by indiscriminately killing thousands civilians in Gaza, so rights groups are justified in asking western countries to stop supporting war crimes. The Netherlands has outrageously been complicit in this brutal offensive that goes far beyond targeting Hamas fighters, even failing to call for a ceasefire despite several of its European partners doing so.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by NL Times. While the entire situation in Gaza is an utter tragedy, it is not up to Dutch judges and lawmakers to determine whether or not Israel has violated international laws as it defends itself from Hamas terrorists. Outside of sensationalist reporting, there is no evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, and the Netherlands is doing nothing wrong by sending military equipment under the specifications of pre-arranged deals.

Predictions