On Monday, Mark Rutte was again in Israel and the Palestinian territories – for the third time since the start of the war in Gaza. “Israeli operations must quickly and significantly reduce their intensity,” the outgoing prime minister tweeted: “A large-scale military action in Rafah would have catastrophic humanitarian consequences.”
In recent months, the Netherlands has been intensively involved in the war between Israel and Hamas, which has cost the lives of more than 28,000 Palestinians in addition to 1,200 Israelis. In addition, Rutte has tried to appeal to the Netanyahu government for the violence unleashed on the civilian population of Gaza, without openly rejecting ally Israel. Of course, Rutte also believes that Tel Aviv should comply with humanitarian law. But, the Prime Minister keeps saying: it is far from certain that Israel is actually violating the laws of war.
This political split is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Despite all the admonishing words from his allies, the Netanyahu government appears to have no intention of backing down – to the frustration of The Hague, Berlin and Washington. This week, the Israeli air force began bombing Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinian civilians have nowhere to go.
Rules for arms trading
The ongoing violence against the Palestinian civilian population is now also causing legal problems for the Netherlands. On Monday, the court in The Hague ordered the Dutch state to stop exporting spare parts for Israeli F-35 aircraft from a distribution center at Woensdrecht Air Base within a week. In its ruling, the court makes it plainly clear what the rules of the international arms trade treaties are to which the Netherlands has committed itself. In those treaties (such as the Common EU Position and the UN Arms Trade Treaty) the question is not whether it has been proven that a country is violating the laws of war: the risk alone must immediately lead to an end to this.
The court therefore reprimanded outgoing Minister of Foreign Trade Liesje Schreinemacher (VVD). Despite warnings from its officials that Israel may commit “serious violations of humanitarian law of war”, Schreinemacher decided to continue the export of F-35 parts based on “foreign political and security considerations”. The minister made the wrong assessment, the court stated, and the state is therefore acting unlawfully.
In its ruling, the court extensively addresses the question of why there is a “significant risk” of violations by Israel. The court refers to the “large numbers of civilian victims (…) including thousands of children”, to the enormous destruction of civilian infrastructure, including drinking water supplies, bakeries and hospitals, to the use of ‘dumb’ unguided bombs, to the expansion of the rules for collateral damage (unwanted collateral damage) from the bombings – something that senior Israeli military officials have openly discussed. The court refers to reports from international bodies such as the UN and human rights organization Amnesty International.
Painful image
It presents a painful picture for the Netherlands, which sees itself as a champion of the international legal order. Last month, the International Court of Justice ruled in a provisional ruling that there are indications of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. That ruling may have consequences for the Netherlands: Nicaragua has already announced that it will start a case against the Netherlands and other countries if they continue to supply weapons to Israel.
Minister of Foreign Trade Geoffrey van Leeuwen (who temporarily replaces Schreinemacher) responded “disappointed” to the verdict in Brussels, but said that the cabinet will implement the court’s ruling – and that exports to Israel will be stopped. However, the government will appeal against the ruling to the Supreme Court, Van Leeuwen said. Out of principle (“We believe that the Netherlands is concerned with its foreign policy”), but also to limit the damage to Dutch participation in the F-35 program as much as possible.
In response to parliamentary questions, the cabinet previously hinted that the future of the distribution center in Woensdrecht could be at stake if the Netherlands did not prove itself to be a “reliable partner”. The government even suggested that the Netherlands could be thrown out of the F-35 program.
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Such a horror scenario seems premature for the time being, if only because Israel will not be deprived of spare parts for the F-35. During a hearing in the US Congress last December, the director of the F-35 program, General Michael Schmidt, said that the US has made every effort to provide Tel Aviv with sufficient spare parts. If this is no longer possible via Woensdrecht, the Americans will deliver directly to Israel.
In the meantime, it remains to be seen how Tel Aviv responds to the court’s ruling. The Netherlands has a number of important orders for Israeli military equipment, including PULS rocket artillery and the Iron Fistdefense system for CV90 armored personnel carriers. Mark Rutte may have also raised this with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
With the cooperation of Clara van de Wiel