Dutch and UK Rights Groups Seek Court Orders to Halt Export of F-35 Spare Parts from Woensdrecht Air Base + Arms from UK to Israel
'Dutch court will decide whether provision of F-35 spare parts to Israel from Woensdrecht Air Base violates Dutch arms export regulations, as well as Dutch obligations under international law.'
The following are repostings of articles relating to legal actions filed in the Netherlands and UK by human rights groups with regard to the supply of F-35 parts and munitions to Israel which are being used to commit war crimes in Gaza and elsewhere in occupied Palestine.
It should be well noted that the statements continuously made by Israeli, U.S., UK and other government representatives, media pundits along with other supporters that Israel allegedly has the “right to defend itself” does not hold up to scrutiny under the Fourth Geneva Convention and International Law.
Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Palestinians look at the destruction by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Monday, Dec. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Palestinians look at the destruction by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Monday, Dec. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Human rights lawyers went to court in the Netherlands on Monday to call for a halt to the export of fighter jet parts to Israel that could be used in attacks on Gaza.
The organizations allege that delivery of parts for F-35 jets makes the Netherlands complicit in possible war crimes being committed by Israel in its war with Hamas.
The civil case in The Hague opened as the Israeli military renewed calls for mass evacuations from the southern town of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge in recent weeks, as it widened its ground offensive and bombarded targets across the Gaza Strip.
The rights lawyers want The Hague District Court to issue an injunction banning the exports of F-35 parts that are stored in a warehouse in the town of Woensdrecht.
“The state must immediately stop the delivery of F-35 parts to Israel,” lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld told the court.
Citing government documents, Zegveld said that Dutch customs asked the government if it wanted to continue exports after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that triggered the Israel-Hamas war.
“The warning that the fighter jets can contribute to serious breaches of the laws of war does not, for the (Dutch) state, outweigh its economic interests and diplomatic reputation.”
Government lawyer Reimer Veldhuis urged the court’s single judge to reject the injunction, saying that even if it were to uphold the rights lawyers’ legal arguments and ban exports, “the United States would deliver these parts to Israel from another place.”
He added that Israel has the right to self-defense.
“Israel must be able to respond to threats from the region. That must, of course, happen within the framework of international law,” Veldhuis said.
He added that the government “believes that a clear risk of serious breaches (of international law) through the use of F-35s cannot at the moment be established.”
A ruling is expected within two weeks and can be appealed.
The following article published by Mondoweiss yesterday, 11 December provides some more details regarding the delivery of F-35 spare parts to Israel from Woensdrecht Air Base in the Netherlands which has been enabling the IDF to drop massive amounts of lethal ordnance on “tiny, densely populated Gaza – akin to Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne.”
Stopping these deliveries would certainly have a huge detrimental impact on Israel’s ability to carry on with their genocidal war crimes in the Gaza strip and elsewhere where Palestinians are trying to survive.
A Dutch court will decide this week whether the provision of F-35 spare parts to Israel from Woensdrecht Air Base violates Dutch arms export regulations, as well as Dutch obligations under international law.
AN ISRAELI F-35I OF THE 5601 TESTING SQUADRON, BEARING MK-84 BOMBS FITTED WITH GBU-31 JDAM KIT, JULY 2023. (PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA)
Woensdrecht Air Base, at the top of the Scheldt estuary, is one of three European ‘logistics hubs’ for Lockheed Martin’s “lethal,” “survivable” and “connected” F-35 Lightning II stealth bomber. F-35 users from across Europe (and Israel) go there to pick up spare parts, under a general license applying to all members of the “international F-35 program.”
Days after Hamas’ October 7 surprise attack, an Israeli military transport plane reportedly landed at Woensdrecht to pick up spare parts for its own fleet of forty F-35I Adirs.
It did so in spite of warnings from Dutch Customs and Foreign Affairs staff that, by dropping massive amounts of ordnance on tiny, densely populated Gaza (akin to Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne, UK historian Robert Pape writes), Israel was committing “serious violations of humanitarian law” – violations the Netherlands would prudently distance itself from.
Later this week, the District Court of the Hague may heed these warnings. On December 4, lawyers for four rights groups (Oxfam Novib, Amnesty International, Pax Christi, and the Rights Forum) told the court that the provision of F-35 spare parts to Israel violates Dutch arms export regulations, along with Dutch obligations under international law, and asked it to halt further exports.
“Images, testimonies, reports as well as Israel’s own statements show that Israel disregards the fundamental principles of the law of war, such as a distinction between military and civilian targets and the principle of proportionality,” lawyers told the court.
“In addition, United Nations officials warn that a genocide is in the making in Gaza. There is no reason to assume that Israel will stop excessive violence against the civilian population in Gaza in the foreseeable future.”
Specifically, attorney Liesbeth Zegveld argued F-35 sales to Israel violate Dutch obligations under Article 1 of the four Geneva Conventions, requiring state parties to “respect and to ensure respect” for the conventions in “all circumstances.”
Zegveld also argued that Dutch export of F-35 parts to Israel violates the ‘Common Position’ of the European Union.
The 2008 EU Common Position states that export licenses “shall be denied if approval would be inconsistent with … the international obligations of Member States,” or if “there is a clear risk that the military technology or equipment to be exported might be used for internal repression,” or to commit “serious violations of international humanitarian law,” or that “the intended recipient would use the military technology or equipment … aggressively against another country or to assert by force a territorial claim,” or for purposes “other than for the legitimate national security interests and defence of the recipient.”
Blocking F-35 parts exports would be nothing new. According to the NL Times, between 2004 and 2020, the Netherlands government refused to issue permits for the export of military equipment to Israel on 29 occasions.
Still, on December 4, government lawyers told the District Court that F-35 parts exports to Israel should continue.
Israel’s fleet of F-35I Adirs was central to its “regional security strategy,” they claimed.
Furthermore, government lawyers argued, by halting F-35 parts exports, the Netherlands would be reneging on agreements to reliably supply these from its Woensdrecht hub, undermining the “expectations of all F-35 partners” and imposing administrative costs on all members of the international F-35 program.
Even if it did cut off parts exports, Israel would turn to other sources, government lawyers told the court. “The Netherlands has no say in this.”
Getting down to the bottom line, Dutch government lawyers argued that suspending F-35 parts exports to Israel would be bad for business – especially with Israel and the U.S.
Business indeed. F-35 parts exports from the Netherlands’ Regional European Warehouse in Woensdrecht are both lucrative and prestigious. Last spring, during a trip to Woensdrecht Air Base, the Pentagon’s F-35 program director signed an agreement confirming the role of the base as a supply and logistics hub for the international F-35 program.
This “improves the position of the Dutch industry that carries out maintenance on the devices,” a Netherlands Defense Ministry release declared at the time.
Hi-tech devices the Netherlands would love to help build, maintain and even procure.
As it happens, Israel is the only F-35 owner with the right to modify the killing machine’s onboard systems. Everyone else – including countries like the Netherlands that invested in F-35 production — have to get permission to do so in U.S. government-run or Lockheed facilities.
According to a 2020 industry report, “Israel has essentially been allowed to create an “app” that operates on top of Lockheed’s [command, control, communications and computing] architecture,” the report goes on. “One of the weapons systems Israel uses with the F-35 platform is their Spice family of guidance kits. The Spice kit is essentially a guidance kit that can be equipped to a variety of munitions to improve their accuracy through electro-optics, GPS, or through a “man-in-the-loop” system in which an onboard Weapons Officer can guide bombs to a target using the bomb’s nose camera and a secure television link for very high accuracy.”
Having been allowed to supercharge F-35 systems, Israel is in a position to test them out under ‘real-life’ conditions and to commodify its technology. From the Middle East’s longest runway at Nevatim airbase, east of Be’er Sheva, an Israeli F-35I Adir fighter pilot can fly to Gaza, drop a 2,000 lb GBU-31 JDAM bomb on a residential building, then race up the coast to Lebanon, take head shots of people walking down the street in Beirut, then zoom over to Syria, demolish an airport runway with an AIM-120 AMRAAM missile and head back home in time for lunch – with images and data to show off to allies and potential business partners.
According to Lebanese researcher Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Israeli fighter jets violate Lebanese airspace all the time, testing out systems other F-35 users would love to try out and help build.
“I see that as simply the fact that Israel has the most real-world opportunity to test and develop these weapon systems on behalf of all the countries who invested this 400 billion dollars into it,” Abu-Hamdan told this writer, in a 2022 conversation.
“If you’re in the Netherlands, one of the other investors, you don’t really have much airspace to try out and do these things; certainly not hostile airspace in which you can fly low and do whatever you want and terrorize people. But Israel does.”
Gazing at Dutch F-35 jets roaring over the peaceful green pastures of North Brabant — perhaps returning to their home base from a maintenance trip to Woensdrecht — it’s easy to imagine the Dutch military wanting a piece of Israel’s action, and stressing out over the fallout a court-ordered halt in F-35 parts exports would bring.
Back in 2014, in a letter released to the Rights Forum under Access to Information, a Dutch foreign affairs staffer warned that their trade attaché in Tel Aviv could “pack his bags and come home” if the Netherlands’ ‘discouragement’ policy on Israel’s West Bank settlements were extended to the entire settlement enterprise – i.e., to the entire Israeli economy.
Imagine the position Netherlands trade staff in Tel Aviv and the Dutch arms industry would be in if the District Court of the Hague rules, this week, that Israel can no longer pick up F-35 spare parts in Woensdrecht, because this would violate Dutch commitments under international law and the EU’s Common Position on international trade.
The court is expected to rule by this Friday. It’s unlikely to cut off F-35 parts exports, observers say.
A related lawsuit was filed with the High Court in London on the 7th of December 2023 as reported by the Associated Press.
Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Defence leave 10 Downing Street following a cabinet meeting in London, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
By Sylvia Hui • Updated 3:11 PM GMT, December 7, 2023
LONDON (AP) — Legal and human rights groups have filed a legal challenge with Britain’s High Court calling for the U.K. to stop granting licenses for weapons exports to Israel, activists said Thursday.
Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq and U.K.-based Global Legal Action Network said they took the step after Britain’s government repeatedly ignored their written requests to suspend arms sales to Israel following the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the current Israeli-Hamas war.
Ahmed Abofoul, an international lawyer at Al-Haq, claimed that Britain “has a legal and moral obligation” to not grant arms exports licenses to governments that commit atrocities. There have been widespread claims of breaches of international law by Hamas and Israeli forces since the war erupted.
Rights groups have long opposed British arms exports to Israel.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade nonprofit group says British industry, namely BAE Systems, provides some 15% of the components in the F35 stealth combat aircraft used by Israel.
The group alleges that the jets were used in the latest bombardment of Gaza, which Israel launched in response to the Oct. 7 attack, followed by a ground offensive in the besieged territory. The group says the components, along with other military equipment, are exported under “open general export licenses” that lack transparency.
Last month, Britain’s Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said U.K. arms exports to Israel were “relatively small,” when he was asked whether weapons sold by Britain been used in violation of international humanitarian law and why such sales have not been suspended in light of the mounting death toll in Gaza.
Shapps said his government will not grant export licenses to any destination where applications do not meet its criteria.
“Our defense exports to Israel are relatively small -- just 42 million pounds ($52 million) last year. They go through a very strict criteria before anything is exported,” Shapps told lawmakers.
The Global Legal Action Network said it also filed a legal challenge Thursday against defense and security giant BAE Systems.
“Given that BAE is known to export components to Israel under these U.K. licenses we are challenging, they are a potential interested party in the litigation,” said Siobhán Allen, one of the lawyers acting for the group in the case.
Activists have staged protests outside BAE Systems factories across the U.K. in recent weeks, urging the company to halt trade links with Israel.
It appears that the parties involved in the legal actions commenced in the UK and the Hague with regard to the supply of arms and F-35 spare parts to Israel anticipate that these decisions will be made by the respective court by the end of this week.
In my lay opinion and many others, the right decision would be for the judges to rule on behalf of the four rights groups – Oxfam Novib, Amnesty International, Pax Christi, and the Rights Forum – on the basis of serious violations of international humanitarian law by both the Netherlands and Israel.
I will do my best to keep you advised in this regard.
