Dutch court hears government appeal against ban on sending F-35 parts to Israel

The district court in The Hague initially rejected the ban, but an appeals panel ordered the government to halt shipments of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel.

The Netherlands' highest court is ruling Friday on an appeal by the government against a ban on sending parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel.

The Netherlands is home to one of three regional warehouses for U.S.-owned F-35 parts. Dutch government lawyers argue that a ban on transfers from the Netherlands would effectively be meaningless as the United States would deliver the parts anyway.(AFP/Representational)

The case was originally brought in late 2023 by three Dutch rights groups who argued that transferring the F-35 parts makes the Netherlands complicit in possible war crimes being committed by Israel in its war with Hamas. Israel denies committing war crimes in its campaign in Gaza.

The district court in The Hague initially rejected the ban, but in February 2024 an appeals panel ordered the Dutch government to halt shipments of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, citing a clear risk of violations of international law. The government appealed to the Supreme Court, saying that foreign policy was a matter for the government, not courts.

In November last year, a legal advisor to the Supreme Court issued a non-binding opinion that the government's appeal should be rejected.

In a largely symbolic move, Slovenia announced in August that it was banning the import, export and transit of all weapons to and from Israel, calling it the first such move by a European Union member.

Last year, the U.K. government suspended exports of some weapons to Israel because they could be used to break international law. Spain says it halted arms sales to Israel in October 2023. There also are court cases in France and Belgium around weapons trade with Israel.