Human rights lawyers filed a lawsuit against a German government decision to approve the export of 3,000 anti-tank weapons to Israel, the second case of its kind this month filed over Berlin\u2019s support of Israel in its war in Gaza.
\nLast week, Berlin lawyers said they had filed an urgent appeal to halt exports of war weapons to Israel, citing reasons to believe they were being used in ways that could violate international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip.
\nThe latest case, brought by five Palestinians from Gaza, was supported by lawyers from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin and Palestinian human rights organizations, ECCHR said in a statement.
\nECCHR said the government granted export clearance for 3,000 anti-tank weapons to Israel after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, but an export permit application for 10,000 rounds of ammunition to Israel had yet to be approved.
\n\u201cGermany cannot remain true to its values if it exports weapons to a war in which serious violations of international humanitarian law are obvious,\u201d ECCHR Secretary General Wolfgang Kaleck said in a statement.
\nThe lawyers called on the Berlin administrative court to suspend the export licenses as a provisional legal protection measure.
\nThe German government and the Economy Ministry, the authority responsible for approving arm exports, were not immediately available for comment on the lawsuit.
\nThe German government has said it examines each arms export individually and takes a number of factors into account, including human rights and humanitarian law.
\nHuman rights groups have been going to court to challenge Germany\u2019s Israel policy that is driven by a commitment to atone for its perpetration under Nazi rule of the World War Two Holocaust in which 6 million Jews died.
\nIn February, a group of German lawyers representing families in Gaza filed a criminal complaint against German officials for allegedly aiding and abetting genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza by providing Israel with weapons.
\nIsrael has strongly denied accusations of genocide or violations of humanitarian law in Gaza, saying it is waging war to defeat the ruling Islamist group Hamas in the small, densely populated enclave.
\nOver 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel\u2019s offensive, Gaza\u2019s health ministry says, after 1,200 Israelis were killed in Hamas\u2019 cross-border attack on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies.
\nLast year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros ($353.70 million), including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase compared with 2022, according to Economy Ministry data.
\n(Reuters)anti-tank weapons. lawsuit, export approval, anti-tank weapons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Human rights lawyers filed a lawsuit against the German government’s approval of exporting 3,000 anti-tank weapons to Israel, citing concerns about potential violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza. The lawsuit was supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and Palestinian human rights organizations. The lawyers called for a suspension of the export licenses as a provisional legal protection measure. Germany has defended its arms export policy, considering factors such as human rights and humanitarian law. In the past, German lawyers have filed complaints against officials for aiding genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has denied accusations of genocide or violations of humanitarian law, stating that they are fighting against Hamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,6126,1972,4791,3503,383,4147,279,6051,3719,2577,932,2562,2369,3185,26,6125,1606,5596,2515,145,895,607,576,415,298,210,2581,115,1235,1823,187,299,5679,2878,591,3504,462,4833,4448,1812,1827,1358,4544,483,293,6024,18],"class_list":["post-7914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-anti-tank-weapons","tag-appeal","tag-approval","tag-arms","tag-attack","tag-berlin","tag-comment","tag-complaint","tag-complaints","tag-concerns","tag-court","tag-criminal-complaint","tag-data","tag-defeat","tag-economy","tag-export-approval","tag-exports","tag-families","tag-february","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-strip","tag-genocide","tag-germany","tag-government","tag-hamas","tag-health","tag-health-ministry","tag-human-rights","tag-humanitarian","tag-increase","tag-international","tag-israel","tag-law","tag-lawsuit","tag-lawyers","tag-military","tag-palestinians","tag-policy","tag-protection","tag-rights","tag-statement","tag-support","tag-suspension","tag-violations","tag-war","tag-war-in-gaza","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n