Dutch court rejects NGOs' demand for further ban on F-35 exports used in Israeli jets

The Hague District Court on Friday rejected a demand by human rights groups to penalize the Netherlands for violating a court ban on the export of F-35 fighter jet parts that Israel might use in planes for operations in Gaza.

The case follows from a February ruling by the Court of Appeals in The Hague ordering the Netherlands to withhold the F-35 components from Israel over concerns the aircraft could be used to break international humanitarian law in Gaza, for example, to conduct indiscriminate air strikes. That decision had implored the Netherlands to stop supplying F-35 parts within seven days. 

The Dutch government appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court yet in the meantime did stop direct exports to Israel. The Dutch Supreme Court will be hear that case in September.

But the groups argued that parts sent to other countries could still end up in Israeli jets and thus the Dutch government was not respecting the February ruling. It asked the court to impose a fine of 50,000 euros ($54,500) per day so long as exports continued.

The Hague District Court ruled on Friday that Oxfam Novib (Oxfam’s Netherlands branch), Pax Nederland and The Rights Forum had not put forth evidence that the Dutch government was ignoring the earlier ruling.

While the district court judges did not dispute that exported parts could reach Israel, the judges said February's ruling was more limited in scope and "said nothing about the route that parts take via other countries for the production of the F-35," according to AFP.

In a statement, the NGOs rejected the latest ruling, accusing the Dutch government of remaining “knowingly complicit in violations of the laws of war by Israel in Gaza” by supplying the F-35 parts.

One of Europe’s three regional warehouses for the F-35 is located in the Netherlands, in Woensdrecht, in the southern part of the country. 

At a June hearing, the Dutch government had said it could not track F-35 parts after they left the Netherlands and warned that placing further export restrictions on them could put at risk supplies to other militaries around the world at a time of simmering international tensions.

That same month, Israel’s Ministry of Defense signed a $3 billion deal with the US government for a third squadron of 25 F-35s. Those planes will begin delivering in 2028, with three to five arriving per year.

Since Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, in which militants killed nearly 1,200 people and took 240 more hostages, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in the enclave.