Protesters take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin in early April, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas [File: Lisi Niesner/Reuters]

ICJ to hear Nicaragua case against Germany for ‘facilitating Gaza genocide’

International Court of Justice urged to stop Berlin from providing Israel with weapons and other aid in its deadly military operation in Gaza.

AJ 8 Apr 2024

Germany is facing charges at the top United Nations court for allegedly “facilitating the commission of genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza in coordination with its military and political ally, Israel.

Nicaragua will set out its case on Monday, with Germany due to respond the following day.

Nicaragua has hauled Germany before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), demanding judges impose emergency measures to stop Berlin from providing Israel with weapons and other assistance.

Germany has hit back at the allegations, with Sebastian Fischer, spokesman for the German Federal Foreign Office, telling reporters in advance of the hearings: “We reject the allegations from Nicaragua.”

“Germany has violated neither the Genocide Convention nor international humanitarian law, and we will demonstrate this in full before the International Court of Justice,” added Fischer.

In a 43-page submission to the court, Nicaragua argues that Germany is in breach of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, set up in the wake of the Holocaust.

“By sending military equipment and now defunding UNRWA [UN agency for Palestinian refugees] … Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide,” says the submission.

‘Imperative and urgent’

“Germany’s failure is all the more reprehensible with respect to Israel given that Germany has a self-proclaimed privileged relationship with it, which would enable it to usefully influence its conduct,” added Nicaragua.

Nicaragua asked the ICJ to decide “provisional measures” – emergency orders imposed while the court considers the broader case.

It is “imperative and urgent” the court orders such measures given that the lives of “hundreds of thousands of people” are at stake, runs the Nicaraguan case.

The ICJ was set up to rule in disputes between nations and has become a key player in the war between Israel and Hamas that erupted after the October 7 attacks.

In a separate case, South Africa has accused Israel of perpetrating genocide in the Gaza Strip, charges Israel vehemently denies.

In that case, the court ordered Israel to do everything in its power to prevent genocidal acts and recently toughened its stance, ordering additional measures obliging Israel to step up access to humanitarian aid.

The court’s rulings are binding but it lacks an enforcement mechanism – for example, it has ordered Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine, to no avail.

Nicaragua has requested five provisional measures, including that Germany “immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance, including military equipment”.

It also calls on the court to order Germany to “reverse its decision to suspend the funding of UNRWA.”

Germany said in January it was halting funding pending an inquiry into Israeli accusations that several UNRWA staff members took part in the October 7 assault.

Nicaragua said in its submission that “it could be comprehensible” that Germany would support an “appropriate reaction” by ally Israel to the October Hamas attacks.

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,139 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians.

Israel has killed at least 33,175 people since then, including more than 13,800 children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Nicaragua Is Taking Germany to Court Over Supplying Arms to Israel

A new case before the International Court of Justice argues that the German government is furthering genocide in the Gaza war.

Nicaragua is set to present its case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.Credit...Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters

NYT April 8, 2024 By Marlise Simons Reporting from Paris

Nicaragua, a longstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause, is broadening the legal battle over the Gaza conflict at the International Court of Justice by bringing charges against Germany, a major supplier of arms to Israel.

Nicaragua is arguing that “Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide” in Gaza and violating the Genocide Convention by providing Israel with military and financial aid. It asks for emergency measures ordering Berlin to halt its wartime support to Israel.

In hearings opening on Monday at the court in The Hague, Nicaragua is also expected to assert that Germany is enabling grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions by Israel, in particular the obligation to protect civilians during armed conflict.

The case brought by Nicaragua raises new questions about the liability of countries that have supplied weapons to Israel for the war in Gaza.

Lawyers say that Germany — Israel’s second-largest arms provider, after the United States — is an easier target for a suit than is the United States. Germany has granted full jurisdiction to the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest court. But the United States denies its jurisdiction, except in cases where Washington explicitly gives its consent.

Sign up for the Israel-Hamas War Briefing.  The latest news about the conflict. Get it sent to your inbox.

Nicaragua’s case is the third before the court this year that deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

South Africa first sought emergency measures from the court, arguing that Israel was at risk of committing genocide, an assertion that the court found plausible but that Israel has strongly denied. The court ordered Israel to ensure that its citizens and soldiers do not violate the Genocide Convention, which Israel has signed. The convention forbids actions intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

South Africa has also petitioned the I.C.J., also known as the World Court, about hunger in Gaza and obtained a new ruling ordering Israel to permit delivery of food, water and other vital supplies “without delay.” Israel has strongly denied accusations of carrying out genocide or deliberate starvation in Gaza.

In February, the court also took up a case requested by the United Nations General Assembly on the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. Those hearings, planned long before the war, heard from more than 50 countries, most of which vented anger and frustration at Israel’s attacks on Gaza and the worsening death toll among civilians, many of them children.

The Nicaraguan case is far broader in scope than South Africa’s, invoking both violations of the Geneva Conventions and the convention against genocide, and requiring the protection of civilians. It also accuses Israel of other “unlawful” conduct in the occupied territories.

The court has not yet accepted the case, but it is obliged to react quickly to requests for emergency measures, as in this case.

Israel, which is not a party to the dispute between Nicaragua and Germany, will not appear before the court in the hearings this week, which are expected to last two days.

The recent intense activity at the court has put it in a rare spotlight. Lawyers say that countries have turned to the court because efforts by the United Nations and other negotiators have failed so far to stop the Gaza war.

“The I.C.J. is not going to end the war in Gaza, but it is a diplomatic tool that foreign policy uses to apply additional pressure on Israel,” said Brian Finucane, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, a think tank for conflict resolution. “In the Nicaragua case, it further applies pressure on Germany.”⍐