{"id":448935,"date":"2026-03-27T14:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/27\/il-belgio-alla-sbarra-per-gaza-la-corte-dappello-non-ha-impedito-il-trasferimento-di-armi-a-israele\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T15:42:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:42:40","slug":"belgium-under-fire-over-gaza-court-rules-it-failed-to-stop-weapons-transfers-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/27\/belgium-under-fire-over-gaza-court-rules-it-failed-to-stop-weapons-transfers-to-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium under fire over Gaza: Court rules it failed to stop weapons transfers to Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The Belgian state has failed to fulfill its obligations under international law to prevent genocide in Gaza and must take action, particularly regarding the transfer of arms and dual-use goods. This time it is not the streets that are saying it<\/strong>, but a ruling by the Brussels Court of Appeal<\/a> in the face of legal proceedings brought by jurists, lawyers, and members of the “Droit pour Gaza” collective, the Belgian-Palestinian Association (ABP), the National Coordination for Action for Peace and Democracy (CNAPD), SOS Gaza, and two Palestinian victims. The Court acknowledged the actions, albeit belated, taken by Brussels to impose, via a Royal Decree of 18 January, a ban on overflights of Belgian territory and technical stopovers by aircraft carrying arms and\/or military equipment destined for Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories. However, it also specifies that this measure does not include the transfer of dual-use goods<\/strong>, i.e., those which are or may be intended, in whole or in part, for military purposes. Therefore, next Monday, 30 March, the State will be summoned to a hearing to clarify whether or not it has acted in this regard. <\/p>\n

It is likely that, in that context, Brussels will cite interpretative ambiguities and difficulties in implementing EU rules (in particular Regulation 2021\/821<\/a> regarding the control regime for exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit, and the transfer of dual-use items). At that point, the Court may decide to ask the Member State to adopt measures to prohibit the transfer of dual-use goods or to refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the EU<\/strong> to seek its opinion on the application of EU rules in the light of international conventions and norms of international law: a step which would prolong the process, but, at the same time, the opinion of the judges in Luxembourg would carry weight across all 27 Member States of the European Union<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, organisations are celebrating the outcome. A \u201chistoric,\u201d \u201cstrong\u201d decision that \u201ccould be replicated in all EU Member States,\u201d said Anne-Laure Losseau, a lawyer and co-founder of Droit pour Gaza, <\/strong> with enthusiasm. \u201cWe are very pleased,\u201d she added. Above all, because \u201cto our knowledge, this is the first time a court has declared itself competent to assess<\/strong>, at the request of victims and NGOs, whether Belgium is fulfilling its obligations under international law.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

 The NGOs and victims brought the case against the Belgian State on 22 July aiming to compel the country<\/strong> “to adopt, as a matter of urgency, three measures required under international law:<\/strong>” the closure of Belgian airspace to the transport of arms and military equipment; a ban on all trade with Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; and Belgium\u2019s denunciation (or, alternatively, suspension) of the Association Agreement between the EU and its Member States (the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement) and Israel. At first instance, in September, the President of the Brussels Court dismissed the application, and the organisations lodged an appeal. On 16 March 2026, the Court of Appeal handed down its decision, overturning the first-instance ruling.<\/strong> \u200b<\/strong><\/p>\n

 In particular, the judgment makes it clear that the Genocide Convention and the Geneva Conventions have “direct effect in domestic law” and that, “where a breach of those provisions is alleged<\/strong>, the court is required to assess”<\/strong> how the State, in this case Belgium, acted. Furthermore, in light of the 2024 orders of the International Court of Justice, the Court recognises that \u201cthe Belgian State did not immediately do everything within its power <\/strong>to prevent the transfer of arms and military equipment to Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which could be used to commit crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and serious violations of the Geneva Conventions in the Gaza Strip, thereby breaching its obligations under those conventions<\/strong>.” Specifically, \u201cas of the date on which the case was heard at first instance (15 September 2025), eighteen months after the order of the International Court of Justice of 26 January 2024, no binding measures had been adopted by the Belgian State.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

For the organisations \u2013 which funded their campaign through crowdfunding \u2013 the Court of Appeal\u2019s ruling \u201caffirms something fundamental: judges can compel a state to fulfill its obligations in the face of genocide<\/strong>, a war crime, or a crime against humanity\u201d and \u201cit is a historic decision\u201d that \u201cchanges something essential: the inaction of our states can be judged and condemned.<\/strong>“<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palestinian lawyers and victims involved in the case are celebrating the outcome: a \u201chistoric\u201d ruling. The judge has now asked Brussels to explain why it has not yet halted the transfer of dual-use goods. The Court may then decide to impose measures or refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union, paving the way for a ruling that would apply to all 27 Member States<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7874,"featured_media":434918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788,25707],"tags":[25890,28868,33580,31280,33581,33582,31310,26309],"class_list":["post-448935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","category-world-politics","tag-weapons-en","tag-belgio","tag-bruxelles-en-3","tag-convenzione-ginevra","tag-corte-dappello","tag-gauze","tag-genocide-at"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":448936,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448935\/revisions\/448936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}