Is Germany supporting genocide in the Gaza Strip with its aid to Israel? Yes, says authoritarian Nicaragua – and wants to force a stop to German arms deliveries with a lawsuit in The Hague.
At the hearing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Nicaragua’s legal representatives called on Germany to immediately stop military aid to Israel and to resume payments to the UN Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA). Nicaragua accuses the federal government of aiding and abetting the genocide of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip by supporting Israel.
The Gaza war was triggered by the attack on Israel by hundreds of members of the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7th. According to Israeli information, around 1,160 people were killed and 250 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip. That played no role at the hearing in The Hague. All the more so that Israel’s massive countermeasures killed tens of thousands of people – according to Hamas, more than 33,000 Palestinians.
Reason of state for Germany
After the Hamas attack, Germany sided closely with Israel. Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared the country’s security to be a reason of state. And it wasn’t just words: last year, the federal government approved the export of war weapons worth 20.1 million euros to Israel. These included portable anti-tank weapons, ammunition, detonators and propellant charges. In total, the traffic light government approved arms exports worth 326.5 million euros to Israel in 2023 – ten times as much as in the previous year. In addition to war weapons, exports also include other military equipment. Armored vehicles or military trucks fall into this category.
In view of the suffering of the civilian population and the catastrophic supply situation in the Gaza Strip, the federal government is now becoming increasingly critical of the Israeli military operation.
Boundaries crossed?
In Nicaragua’s view, Israel’s offensive has crossed the line between legitimate self-defense and genocide. Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos José Arguello Gómez, accuses Germany of not making this distinction: “Surprisingly, Germany does not seem to be able to distinguish between self-defense and genocide,” he said in the hearing.
Gómez called it “understandable” that the federal government assumes a special responsibility towards Israel because of the crimes of the Holocaust. But Berlin should not confuse the Jewish people with the Israeli government. In the Gaza war, Germany has an obligation to Nicaragua to stop supporting Israel, according to Nicaragua’s argument. This results from a court ruling on January 26th.
In an urgent procedure following a lawsuit by South Africa, the court confirmed the risk of genocide in the Gaza Strip. Although Berlin has known about the risks since then at the latest, it continues to supply armaments to Israel and, in the words of the French international lawyer Alain Pellet, accepts that it is encouraging genocide: “No state, neither Israel nor Germany, can use this as a pretext “To defend oneself or to assist the victim of an attack in defending himself is exempt from the basic rules of international law.”
Calls for resumption of aid to UNRWA
Nicaragua also wants to force Germany to resume payments to the UN Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA). Germany is the second largest donor in the world after the USA – with 202 million US dollars in 2022. Some states have frozen the funds because UNRWA employees are said to have supported Hamas.
German lawyer Daniel Müller, representing Nicaragua, said in The Hague that Germany’s suspension of UNRWA funding jeopardized a vital means of supporting the Palestinian people. Müller called it a “pathetic excuse” that Germany, on the one hand, provides humanitarian aid to the people in the Gaza Strip and, on the other hand, provides weapons and military equipment with which these people are killed.
Germany points accusations back
The German side firmly rejects the allegations. She has two hours to make her plea on Tuesday morning. The Federal Foreign Office Commissioner for International Law, Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, called Nicaragua’s presentation blatantly one-sided. Germany is violating neither the Genocide Convention nor international humanitarian law. It is unclear when the 16 judges will announce their decision.
In the Netherlands, for example, a court has banned its own government from continuing to deliver F-35 fighter jets to Israel because they could be used to commit serious violations of the humanitarian law of war in the Gaza Strip.
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Nicaragua has a long tradition of supporting the cause of the Palestinians. The close ties between the Sandinista liberation movement in Nicaragua and the Palestinians date back to the 1960s. Nicaragua was the first Central American country to establish relations with the PLO.
At the hearing in The Hague, Nicaragua’s ambassador emphasized that the government and people of Nicaragua feel a special sympathy for the Palestinian people because of their own struggle against military intervention.
Nicaragua is governed by authoritarian rule. UN experts accuse the political leadership under President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, of crimes against humanity. According to a UN report from last year, the government has created the legal conditions to restrict basic freedoms and persecute opposition members.
Ludger Kazmierczak, ARD The Hague, tagesschau, April 8, 2024 3:57 p.m