German court dismisses request to block arms exports to Israel

A Berlin court on Tuesday rejected an urgent request by a number of Palestinian Gaza residents to stop the government approving permits for the export of German weapons to Israel on grounds that they might be used in violation of humanitarian law.
The Palestinians were supported by several organisations including the European Legal Support Center (ELSC), Law for Palestine and the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy.
These argued there were reasons to believe such violations were happening in Israel’s war against the Hamas group that rules Gaza.
But the Berlin administrative court said the plaintiffs had not shown that decisions on arms exports to Israel were actually pending, as Germany had abstained from issuing any this year, or that Germany was likely to permit exports in violation of its obligations under international humanitarian law.