Rights groups file new case against German arms export to Israel

Human rights lawyers have 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’s support of Israel in its war in Gaza.

Last 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.

The 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.

ECCHR says the government granted export clearance for 3,000 anti-tank weapons to Israel after the Hamas attack on October 7, but an export permit application for 10,000 rounds of ammunition to Israel had yet to be approved.

“Germany cannot remain true to its values if it exports weapons to a war in which serious violations of international humanitarian law are obvious,” ECCHR Secretary General Wolfgang Kaleck says in a statement.

The lawyers have called on the Berlin administrative court to suspend the export licenses as a provisional legal protection measure.

The German government has said it examines each arms export individually and takes a number of factors into account, including human rights and humanitarian law.