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kenneth roth
Dutch Court Blocks Weapons Parts for Israel Over 'Undeniable' Risk to Gaza
While the Dutch government plans to appeal, one campaigner expressed hope that the verdict "can encourage other countries to follow suit, so that civilians in Gaza are protected by international law."
Feb 12, 2024
With over 28,000 Palestinians killed by Israel so far in the Gaza Strip, a Dutch appeals court ruled Monday that the Netherlands must stop exporting parts for Israeli forces' aircraft due to the "clear risk that Israel's F-35 fighter jets might be used in the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law."
Oxfam Novib executive director Michiel Servaes, whose group filed the lawsuit against the Dutch government in December with PAX and the Rights Forum,
declared that "this positive ruling by the judge is very good news, especially for civilians in Gaza."
"It is an important step to force the Dutch government to adhere to international law, which the Netherlands has strongly advocated for in the past," he added. "Israel has just launched an attack against the city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population are sheltering, the Netherlands must take immediate steps."
Monday's decision on the U.S.-made jet parts stored in a Dutch warehouse followed a lower court declining to intervene in December.
The new ruling came as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was in Jerusalem to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is waging war in retaliation for the October 7 attack led by Hamas, which has governed Gaza for nearly two decades.
"It is a pity that this legal action was necessary and, unfortunately, has taken four months to come to this conclusion," said Servaes. "The judge had ruled that the Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation was obliged to reexamine the arms export license to Israel, and that his decision was taken incorrectly."
While the appeals court ordered compliance within a week, the Dutch government plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. According toReuters:
"The delivery of U.S. F-35 parts to Israel in our view is not unjustified," Trade Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen said.
He said the F-35s were crucial for Israel's security and its ability to protect itself from threats in the region, "for example from Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon".
Van Leeuwen said it was too early to say what effect the verdict would have on Israel.
"We are part of a big consortium of countries that are also working together with Israel, we will talk to partners how to deal with this."
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Israel and Palestine director, Omar Shakir called out the Netherlands for "shamefully" seeking to continue its military support for Israeli forces.
Supporters of the Dutch ruling also highlighted that other countries, particularly the United States, have enabled the Netanyahu government, which claims to be targeting Hamas but has slaughtered thousands of civilians—including more than 12,300 children—leading to accusations of genocide from around the world.
Kenneth Roth, former HRW who is now a visiting professor at Princeton University, said on social media that it was "about time" for the Dutch decision. He added that the "undeniable" risk of exports being used for war crimes determined by the Dutch court "is equally true for parts sent by other nations."
Explaining the potential limitations of the Dutch ruling, Gareth Jennings, aviation editor at the defense intelligence firm Janes, toldThe New York Times that "if one supplier isn't able to deliver for any reason, the parts can be sourced from another."
Therefore, the decision seems to be "a symbolic act rather than one having any meaningful effect on Israel’s F-35 fleet," he said.
However, Oxfam's Servaes stressed that "we hope that this verdict can encourage other countries to follow suit, so that civilians in Gaza are protected by international law."
Appearing on Democracy Now! Monday, Palestinian American human rights attorney and Rutgers University associate professor Noura Erakat noted that both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a U.S. federal judge have found that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza.
Although the U.S. judge also found that the case about the Biden administration's complicity falls "outside the court's limited jurisdiction," the ICJ case is proceeding and the court last month ordered Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza.
"We see Israel directly violating those provisional orders," Erakat said, pointing to the rising death toll, blocked humanitarian aid, and continued commentary from Israeli leaders.
"This is a warning to the world," she added. "Israel must stop its genocidal campaign now."
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"Are They 'Hamas'?" 12,300 Children Killed by Israeli Forces in Gaza
Gruesome new data shows that kids make up around 43% of the death toll from Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.
Feb 12, 2024
Israeli forces have killed more than 12,300 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip in just over four months, a staggering toll that's likely to grow as the Netanyahu government ramps up its assault on and prepares to invade the overcrowded city of Rafah.
New figures that Gaza health authorities provided to The Associated Press show that children make up roughly 43% of the total death toll in the Palestinian enclave since October 7. Women and children combined account for three-quarters of the death toll, according to the new data.
"Are they 'Hamas'?" Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, asked in response to the numbers, referring to Israel's claim that it is targeting militants despite the massive and growing body of evidence to the contrary.
An Amnesty International report released Monday examining four recent Israeli airstrikes on Rafah. Amnesty said that "in all four attacks," it did not find "any indication that the residential buildings hit could be considered legitimate military objectives or that people in the buildings were military targets."
Virtually all of Gaza's 1 million-plus children have been traumatized in some way by Israel's monthslong war on the Gaza Strip: Around 17,000 have been separated from their families, more than 1,000 have had one or both of their legs amputated, and more than 610,000 are currently trapped in Rafah, a small city that was previously considered a relative safe zone for people fleeing Israeli bombs and bullets.
"Israel is erasing generations in Gaza and its soldiers are killing children in numbers competing with the cruelest of wars," Israeli journalist Gideon Levy wrote in a column last month. "This will not and cannot be forgotten. How can a people ever forget those who killed its children in such a manner? How can people of conscience around the world remain silent?"
"This is the gravest test of all. Will they uphold international law and children's right to life? Or will they stand by while the lives, bodies, and futures of more children are decimated?"
Children were among the dozens of Palestinians killed Monday in a wave of Israeli airstrikes conducted as the U.S.-armed Israel Defense Forces raided an apartment building to rescue two hostages.
Jason Lee, Save the Children's country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, said last week that "much of the international community has failed tests of their commitment to protect children so far."
"This is the gravest test of all," Lee said of Rafah. "Will they uphold international law and children's right to life? Or will they stand by while the lives, bodies, and futures of more children are decimated?"
The United Nations Children's Fund, known as UNICEF, similarly appealed to the international community to act to prevent catastrophe for children and others in Rafah.
"We need an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, and the safe and immediate release of all hostages—especially children—who have suffered so much," Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director, said Friday. "A humanitarian cease-fire will save lives. It will allow for the expansion of the humanitarian response, and help provide the best protection for children whose lives and futures are hanging in the balance."
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Experts Call on ICC to 'Prosecute Israelis Responsible for Bombing Hospitals'
"There is a particularly cruel circular logic at play here: Israeli forces, as they bomb and besiege Gaza, are creating an urgent need for medical care among civilians while simultaneously denying them access to it."
Feb 09, 2024
A pair of human rights experts on Friday urged the International Criminal Court to prosecute any Israelis who have played a part in the assault on Gaza's healthcare system, which is in tatters after months of relentless airstrikes, shelling, and a suffocating blockade.
"Since Hamas' horrific October 7 attack, Israel has repeatedly targeted healthcare facilities, ambulances, and access roads," Annie Sparrow, a practicing clinician in war zones, and Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote in an op-ed for Foreign Policy.
"It has arrested healthcare workers, blockaded fuel needed for generators, and withheld critical medical and surgical supplies—all of which are intended to undermine Gaza's healthcare system," they added. "There is a particularly cruel circular logic at play here: Israeli forces, as they bomb and besiege Gaza, are creating an urgent need for medical care among civilians while simultaneously denying them access to it."
Sparrow and Roth called on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is currently investigating alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, to "prosecute Israelis responsible for bombing hospitals, denying access to medicines and vaccines, and causing excessive civilian harm."
"These attacks could be part of a plan to make Gaza uninhabitable and drive Palestinians out, an outcome that senior Israeli ministers—whose support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to remain in power—continue to promote," they wrote.
The near-total collapse of Gaza's healthcare system under Israel's assault, combined with the scarcity of clean water and other necessities, has left millions of Gazans at growing risk of disease. There is no longer a single fully functional hospital in the Gaza Strip, according to the United Nations.
"Israel's destruction of Gaza's healthcare system is not only an important part of the genocide charges [brought by South Africa]—it is also a blatant war crime that should be prosecuted outright by the International Criminal Court," Sparrow and Roth wrote Friday, noting that while the International Court of Justice "resolves disputes between states, the ICC adjudicates criminal prosecutions of individuals."
"Targeting healthcare achieves little militarily while amplifying the death toll and suffering caused by indiscriminate bombardment," the pair continued. "Such attacks flout the core purpose of international humanitarian law—to relieve civilian suffering—and are thus often an omen of broader atrocities to come."
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that it has documented more than 350 attacks on healthcare in the Gaza Strip since October 7. The attacks killed at least 645 people and injured 818 more, according to newly released WHO data.
"These attacks have affected 98 healthcare facilities, including 27 hospitals damaged out of 36, and affected 90 ambulances, including 50 which sustained damage," WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.
The WHO's new figures came shortly before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israel's military to craft a plan to forcibly "evacuate" civilians from Rafah, a densely crowded city whose hospitals are overwhelmed with injured patients and displaced people.
Netanyahu's order intensified concerns that an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah is imminent.
Catherine Russell, head of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), warned that a Rafah assault could be catastrophic for the enclave's already starving and desperate population.
"We need Gaza's last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets, and water systems to stay functional," Russell told The Associated Press. "Without them, hunger and disease will skyrocket, taking more child lives.”
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