Germany rejected this Tuesday in The Hague before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest UN court, the Nicaraguan accusation of complicity in genocide in Gaza for selling weapons to Israel. Nicaragua has sued Germany for the court to impose emergency measures that prevent Berlin from supplying weapons and other aid to Israel, arguing that “by sending military equipment (…), Germany facilitates the commission of genocide” , according to the lawsuit document.
Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, legal advisor to the German Foreign Ministry, told the ICJ judges on Tuesday that “Germany firmly rejects Nicaragua’s accusations; They have no basis in fact or law” and she assured that they are based on flimsy evidence. Arms exports were examined to guarantee compliance with International Law, said the jurist.
Germany is one of Israel’s strongest allies since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip, which has claimed thousands of Palestinian lives, most of them civilians. According to figures from the German Ministry of Economy, Berlin sent weapons and war equipment worth 326.5 million euros to Isarel in 2023, ten times more than the previous year, which was about 32 million euros.
“Germany is doing everything possible to fulfill its responsibility towards the Israeli and Palestinian people,” said Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, emphasizing that Germany is the largest single donor of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
Nicaragua does not see it that way, and in the 43-page document it maintains that Germany is violating the Genocide Convention, approved by the United Nations in 1948 and motivated by the Holocaust. Nicaragua’s lawyer, Alain Pellet, told the court in The Hague on Monday that “Germany was and is fully aware of the risk that the weapons it delivered and continues to deliver to Israel” contribute to committing genocide, so “it is extremely It is urgent that Germany finally suspends” that supply.
Nicaraguan jurists ask the ICJ to order Germany to stop arms sales while the court evaluates the case. The Court is expected to issue provisional measures within weeks, but a final ruling could take years. Although the rulings are supposed to be legally binding, the court has no way to enforce them.
Lawyer Tania von Uslar-Gleichen defended this Tuesday the reasons for German support for Israel. “Our history is the reason why Israel’s security is at the center of German foreign policy,” she said, alluding to the history of Nazi annihilation of Jews in the Holocaust. “Germany has learned from its past, a past that includes responsibility for one of the most horrendous crimes in human history, the Shoah,” said Uslar-Gleichen.
The Nicaraguan lawyers explained that Nicaragua has denounced Germany, and not the United States, Israel’s main military ally, because Washington does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, and Germany does.
This is the second genocide case before the ICJ in relation to the Gaza war. In late 2023, South Africa accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinian people and demanded a ceasefire in a summary procedure. The UN court did not hear the demand, but did order Israel to allow significantly more humanitarian aid and to do everything possible to prevent any act of genocide. The ICJ has recently hardened its stance, ordering additional measures requiring Israel to increase access to humanitarian aid.
The Gaza Strip has been the scene of a devastating war between Israel and Hamas since October 7, 2023. The Hamas attack that day resulted in the death of 1,170 Israelis, most of them civilians, and the kidnapping of more than 250 people. , of which 129 remain held in Gaza and 34 have died, according to the official Israeli count.
The Israeli military response has so far caused 33,207 deaths, mostly women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, controlled by Hamas since 2007. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says its war is against murderous militants of Hamas, not against Palestinian civilians, and that Israel is the victim of a global smear campaign.