An attempt by Palestinian applicants from the Gaza Strip to prohibit the German government from supplying arms to Israel failed in the second instance on Friday.
The Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court (OVG) rejected the appeal by a father and his son in summary proceedings, according to a spokeswoman.
They wanted to stop the arms deliveries by way of so-called provisional legal protection. This serves to grant provisional protection until a decision is made in the main proceedings. However, the OVG agreed with the view taken in June by the Berlin Administrative Court, which declared a total of three applications by Palestinians inadmissible.
The OVG reasoned that it was currently impossible to predict what decisions would be made by the federal government in the future and under which factual and legal conditions they would be made.
The court argued that it could not be predicted that the German government would grant licences for arms deliveries in breach of obligations under international law. The applicants had failed to recognize the government’s scope for decision-making associated with alternative courses of action.
The current applicants lodged an appeal against the decision of the court of first instance with the next higher court. However, the judges of the 1st Senate agreed with the opinion of their colleagues and dismissed the appeal.
