Dutch Court Orders Halt to Export of F-35 Jet Parts to Israel  

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardments in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 17, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardments in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 17, 2024. (AP)
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Dutch Court Orders Halt to Export of F-35 Jet Parts to Israel  

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardments in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 17, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardments in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 17, 2024. (AP)

A Dutch court on Monday ordered the government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used to violate international law during the war in Gaza.

The appeals court said the state had seven days to comply to the order, which echoed alarm across Europe and elsewhere over the humanitarian impact of the war. Israel denies committing abuses and says it is battling Hamas militants bent on its destruction.

"It is undeniable that there is a clear risk the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law," the court said, ruling in favor of a lawsuit against the Dutch state over the exports brought by rights groups including the Dutch arm of Oxfam.

The Dutch government said it would appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that it should be up to the state to set foreign policy, not a court.

Dutch trade Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen said the fighter jets were crucial for Israel's security and it was too early to say if a ban on exporting parts from his country would have any concrete impact on the overall supplies to 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," he said.

The Netherlands houses one of several regional warehouses of US-owned F-35 parts, which are distributed to countries that request them, including Israel in at least one shipment since Oct. 7.

Israel's massive aerial and ground offensive in the densely populated Gaza Strip has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run enclave's health authorities, and forced most of its 2.3 million people to flee their homes.

Israel denies committing war crimes in its attacks on Gaza, which followed the Hamas cross-border raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 240 were taken hostage.

Israeli cabinet minister Benny Gantz said on social media he had met with visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and welcomed the decision to appeal.

"I ... reiterated that the court decision will harm the global and Israeli imperative of fighting terror," Gantz posted on X.

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

In a first ruling in December, a Dutch lower court had stopped short of ordering the Dutch government to halt the exports, even though it said it was likely that F-35s contributed to violations of the laws of war.

But where the lower court ruled the state had a large degree of freedom in weighing political and policy issues to decide on arms exports, the appeals court said such concerns did not trump the clear risk of breaches of international law.

The appeals court also said it was likely the F-35s were being used in attacks on Gaza, leading to unacceptable civilian casualties. It dismissed the Dutch state's argument that it did not have to do a new check on the permit for the exports.

"We hope this ruling will strengthen international law in other countries so that the citizens of Gaza are also protected by international law," Oxfam Novib director Michiel Servaes said in a statement.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell noted the ruling on Monday and made a thinly veiled call on the United States to cut arms supplies to Israel due to high civilian casualties in Gaza.

Presiding Judge Bas Boele said there was a possibility the Dutch government could allow the export of F-35 parts to Israel in future, but only on the strict condition they would not be used in military operations in Gaza.

The government said it would try to convince partners it would remain a reliable member of the F-35 program and other forms of international and European defense cooperation.

The F-35's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin said in a statement it was evaluating the impact of the Dutch court ruling on its supply chain but added it stood "ready to support the US government and allies as needed".



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."