Ziada v. Gantz and Eshel

Abstract

Abstract Civilians who bring claims against powerful states or their officials, for harm resulting from the conduct of war, face challenges that no single legal procedure can possibly overcome. Certain codified international laws outline specific protections for civilians, but this protective infrastructure stands in the shadow of two creatures of uncodified international customary law: state sovereignty and the immunity of states and their officials. The subject of this case note is a civil claim before a Dutch domestic court, against powerful officials of the state of Israel. The claimant, a Palestinian Dutch national, is attempting to sue the officials for the unlawful killing of six members of his family in the intentional bombing of their home in Gaza in 2014. In January 2020, he set out to establish the Dutch court’s jurisdiction based on an exceptional provision of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure. This contribution argues that the Dutch court erred in allowing the asserted ‘functional immunity’ of the foreign officials to counter its own jurisdiction.