If The Hague District Court supports the complaint, the Netherlands will be banned from sending weapons or weapons parts to occupied Palestine and trading with the Israeli regime.
The Netherlands has already halted the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to occupied Palestine, following a similar case that was launched earlier this year, Euro News reported.
The 1948 Genocide Convention requires signatories to do everything they can to prevent and punish genocide.
The activist groups bringing the case 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 that Palestinians were being deprived of some rights protected under the convention.
On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, and his former war minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of crimes against humanity during the 13-month war in Gaza.
The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and Gallant have used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid, and that they have intentionally targeted civilians in Gaza.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, whose country hosts the court, confirmed that the government would arrest Netanyahu if he arrived on Dutch soil.
“The line from the government is clear. We are obliged to cooperate with the ICC and we will also do that. We abide 100% by the Rome Statute,” he said in response to a question in parliament.
SD/