Dutch court weighs suit on arms sales to Israel

Associated Press The Hague: Pro-Palestinian activists told a Dutch court on Friday that the Netherlands is violating international law by selling weapons to Israel, a day day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes. If The Hague District Court supports the complaint, the Netherlands will be banned from sending weapons or weapons parts to Israel and trading with the occupied territories. The Netherlands has already halted the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel following a similar case earlier this year. “The government uses my own tax money, that I pay, to kill my own family. I've lost 18 members of my own family,” Ahmed Abofoul told a full courtroom. Abofoul is the legal adviser for the pro-Palestinian organisation Al-Haq, one of the 10 groups who sued the government. The Dutch state denies it is in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention, drawn up following World War II.

“Every cooperation is cautiously weighed,” government lawyer Reimer Veldhuis said, arguing the court should not take the role of the state in setting foreign policy. The treaty requires signatories to do everything they can to prevent and punish genocide. The activist groups pointed to several emergency orders from another court, the International Court of Justice, as confirming the obligation to stop weapons sales. In January, the top UN court said it was plausible Palestinians were being deprived of some rights protected under the Genocide Convention. “This is the result of the complicity of governments for decades,” Abofoul told reporters after the hearing. The court will rule on December 13. On Thursday, the world's only permanent international criminal court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu.