German court rejects legal challenge to halt arms exports to Israel
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A Berlin court on Wednesday rejected lawsuits filed by Gaza residents seeking to halt German arms exports to Israel, dismissing the cases on procedural grounds rather than examining whether the weapons deliveries violated international law, Anadolu reports.
The Berlin Administrative Court ruled that the requests of the Palestinian plaintiffs were inadmissible because the German government had already changed its policy and stopped approving new weapons exports that could be used in Gaza.
In one case, a Palestinian living in Gaza requested that the German government stop approving weapons export licenses to Israel until the Israeli military withdraws from Gaza. The court ruled the request for preventive legal protection was inadmissible, reasoning that the protection can only be granted if it is foreseeable that Germany would make similar decisions in the near future.
The court noted that Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared in August that the government would no longer approve new export licenses for weapons that could be used in Gaza, making immediate court intervention unnecessary.
In a second case, four Palestinians from Gaza challenged a license granted to a German arms manufacturer in late October 2023 to export 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons to Israel. After their previous urgent application to repeal the delivery license was rejected in 2024, the plaintiffs filed another lawsuit seeking a court declaration that the approval was “unlawful”.
The court dismissed the case as well, stating there was no concrete risk that the government would issue similar licenses under identical circumstances in the future.
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“Future decisions on the supply of weapons of war fall within the core area of executive responsibility and cannot therefore be predicted with certainty. In addition, the situation in the Gaza conflict has changed significantly since autumn 2023,” said the count. “Therefore, it cannot be expected with the necessary probability that the German government will continue to decide on deliveries of weapons of war in the manner feared by the plaintiffs.”
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which supported the plaintiffs in the legal action, said Germany’s authorization of weapons exports to Israel violated international agreements that Berlin signed, including the Arms Trade Treaty and the Geneva Conventions.
“In view of numerous documented war crimes, it was already highly probable at the start of the Israeli military operations that Israel would use the delivered weapons in violation of international law. The German government knew this – and nevertheless approved the exports,” said ECCHR experts.
From Oct. 7, 2023, to June 5, 2025, Germany authorized arms sales to Israel totaling more than €492 million ($570 million). It positioned Germany as Israel’s second-biggest arms supplier, trailing only the US.
Under mounting domestic and international pressure, Merz announced in August that Germany would no longer approve new weapons exports to Israel that could be used in Gaza. But the move stopped short of halting previously approved shipments, prompting criticism.
After the declaration, Germany approved additional arms exports worth €2.4 million ($2.8 million), including bombs, torpedoes, rockets and missiles.
Merz, a staunch ally of Israel, has repeatedly emphasized Germany’s historical responsibility for Israel’s security, rooted in its Nazi past and the Holocaust.
He has insisted that the commitment constitutes part of Germany’s “staatsraeson,” or reason of state. Merz has rejected demands for a total arms embargo on Israel and blocked proposed EU measures, including sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers and the suspension of the EU-Israel trade agreement.
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
