D66, GroenLinks-PvdA and the SP want the Netherlands to immediately stop supplying spare parts for the F-35 to Israel. NRC revealed on Tuesday that after the start of the war in Gaza, the outgoing cabinet decided to continue deliveries to Israel, despite official warnings that Israel may currently be committing “serious violations of humanitarian law” with the F-35s.
Research by NRC shows that Israel made a request to the Netherlands in mid-October to collect spare parts for its fleet of F-35 fighter planes. The Netherlands is an important transit country within the international F-35 program: Woensdrecht air base has a large logistics center where partner countries, including Israel, can order parts. Although ministers Hanke Bruins Slot (Foreign Affairs, CDA) and Liesje Schreinemacher (Foreign Trade, VVD) were warned internally that there is a high risk that Israel will violate the laws of war in Gaza with the F-35s, they decided to continue deliveries anyway. .
The House of Representatives factions of D66, GroenLinks-PvdA and the SP have asked written parliamentary questions about the publication to the ministers. D66 MP Sjoerd Sjoerdsma wants deliveries to Israel to be stopped “as long as that country violates the laws of war,” he says. Sjoerdsma says that D66 supports Israel’s right to protect its citizens, but that the Netherlands “cannot contribute to Israeli violations of the laws of war.” “Innocent civilians are suffering as a result and it will damage our diplomatic relations worldwide.”
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‘Special responsibility’
MP Kati Piri of GroenLinks-PvdA does not understand that the ministers did not block deliveries to Israel after the outbreak of the Gaza war. “Arms supplies are always very sensitive, especially when a country is at war.” Piri believes that the Netherlands has a special responsibility given the war in Gaza. “You cannot blindly say yes because you have an existing partnership with Israel, especially now that those weapons are being actively deployed, you as the Netherlands must checks and balances build in.”
Piri also points to the conditions that the Netherlands attached to arms deliveries to Ukraine, an important ally like Israel. “Then we said, for example: don’t deploy them on Russian territory. The Ukrainians didn’t like that either.”
The official advice to Bruins Slot and Schreinemacher warned that blocking F-35 deliveries to Israel in the middle of the Gaza war could damage the Dutch relationship with Israel and the United States. SP MP Jasper van Dijk thinks that is “a shameful argument”. “Apparently the fear of diplomatic damage outweighs the fact that civilians are being bombed on a large scale. In this way, the Netherlands makes itself complicit.”
CDA MP Derk Boswijk does not support the call to stop F-35 deliveries. Boswijk believes that Israel should also be held accountable for possible war crimes, but wants to be “reluctant” with that accusation because, according to him, “an information war is going on” around the Gaza war. That is why Boswijk took the initiative for a hearing with specialists in humanitarian law, which will be organized in the House of Representatives next week.
Boswijk also points out the important role that the Netherlands plays within the F-35 program. “The Netherlands collaborates with dozens of countries within the F-35 program, so you should not make an independent decision about blocking shipments. This is not something you should take lightly.”
Diplomatic damage
VVD MP Ruben Brekelmans thinks the same and emphasizes that the Netherlands “must comply with international agreements”. “That is in the interest of our security and that of partner countries. Moreover, Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism. Stopping the supply of spare parts would make Israel paralyzed and the Netherlands an unreliable partner.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said NRC said in a response on Tuesday that it is investigating whether it is possible and desirable to subject “specific deliveries” in the context of the F-35 program, such as to Israel, to “additional checks”. “The Israeli right to self-defense” and “the risks of violations of international humanitarian law” will be taken into account, the ministry said.