The Dutch supreme court ruled on Friday that two Israeli former military commanders, including ex-defense minister Benny Gantz, are immune from civil prosecution in the Netherlands in a case brought over the deaths of six Palestinians in an Israeli air strike.
The ruling upheld a December 2021 Dutch appeals court finding that Gantz – a career soldier turned politician – and ex-air force commander Amir Eshel, as then-high-ranking Israeli officials carrying out government policy, could not be held liable in a Dutch civil case, “irrespective of the nature and seriousness of the conduct alleged against them.”
The plaintiff, Ismail Ziada – a Dutch national of Palestinian origin – said he lost his mother, three of his brothers, his sister-in-law and his nephew in the attack, which took place in Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza in 2014 when Gantz was Israeli armed forces’ commander-in-chief.
Details of the lawsuit against Gantz
National Unity Party head and former defense minister Benny Gantz at the Jerusalem Post Annual Conference 2023 in New York, June 5, 2023. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)In the suit, Ziada sought unspecified damages against Gantz under Dutch universal jurisdiction rules, which allows countries to prosecute serious offenses committed elsewhere.
There is no further appeal possible against the supreme court’s decision.
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