Under indictment: Germany’s legal team faces accusations of complicity in genocide in The Hague. The team is led by don Tania von Uslar-Gleichen.
Photo: IMAGO/Robin van Lonkhuijsen
On Monday Nicaragua had the say, on Tuesday it was Germany. “We will present our legal opinion to the ICJ tomorrow, Tuesday,” the Foreign Office said on Monday in online service X. “Our international law team will then refute the expected allegations in detail tomorrow, accusation by accusation.”
Nicaraga’s allegations, which will be heard in the two-day hearing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, are serious: “By supplying military equipment and cutting off funding for UNRWA (…), Germany is aiding and abetting Genocide,” says the 43-page brief to the ICJ. Pending a final decision from the Hague court, the Central American country is demanding the imposition of five emergency measures, including stopping arms sales and other support from Berlin to Israel and lifting the freeze on payments to UNRWA.
“The international community generally understood that Israel had to react and protect its citizens,” writes the Republic of Nicaragua in its application to the ICJ. »It could be understood that states like Germany, which are friends of Israel, would support an appropriate response to this attack; but this cannot be an excuse for violations of international law.”
Israel’s conduct of the war is increasingly being criticized
Germany suspended its payments to UNRWA in January. The reason was allegations against UNRWA that twelve of its employees were involved in the unprecedented attack on Israel by the radical Islamic group Hamas on October 7, in which around 1,140 people died and more than 250 were taken hostage. Since then, Israel has been waging war against the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s conduct of the war is increasingly being criticized internationally. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began – including more than 20,000 women and children. The information comes from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, but is internationally considered credible.
On the first day of the trial, Nicaragua called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order a stop to German arms sales to Israel. “It is extremely urgent that Germany finally suspends this aid,” said the lawyer representing Nicaragua, Alain Pellet, on Monday at the start of the two-day hearing. Just last Friday, the UN Human Rights Council issued a resolution demanding that all arms deliveries to Israel be stopped because of the “possible risk of genocide in the Gaza Strip.” An export ban had already been warned by the ICJ. As a prominent former supporter of Israel, Canada has already stopped supplying weapons, and the USA and France have recently sharpened their criticism of Israel’s actions.
Sevim Dağdelen from the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) is attending the hearings in The Hague as a parliamentary process observer for the Bundestag. »The federal government was responsible for 47 percent of all arms exports to Israel in 2023. Approvals have increased tenfold compared to 2022 to over 320 million euros. In view of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, the traffic light’s refusal to stop arms exports is simply irresponsible,” the foreign policy spokeswoman for the BSW Group told “nd”. It would seem obvious that the federal government is at least aiding and abetting the violations of the Geneva Conventions through arms exports.
Humanitarian aid and weapons in a double pack
The German lawyer Daniel Müller, who, among other things, represents Nicaragua in the proceedings, also criticized the matter harshly. “It is a truly pathetic excuse for Palestinian children, women and men to provide humanitarian aid, particularly through airdrops, on the one hand, and the military equipment used to kill and destroy them on the other.”
The ICJ was established to decide on interstate disputes. Although his judgments are legally binding, he has little ability to enforce them. In December, South Africa accused Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip before the ICJ. In a preliminary decision at the end of January, the court ordered Israel to do everything in its military operation in the Gaza Strip to prevent genocide, protect the Palestinian population and enable humanitarian aid. Another urgent appeal by South Africa against Israel over its impending military offensive in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip has been rejected.With agencies
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