Germany will respond in court on Tuesday but has already hit back at the accusations
The Hague, Netherlands:
Nicaragua blasted Germany’s support for Israel at the United Nations’ top court on Monday, saying it was “pathetic” to provide weapons to the Israeli government while simultaneously providing aid to Gaza.
“This is indeed a pathetic excuse for Palestinian children, women and men to, on the one hand, provide humanitarian aid, including through airdrops, and on the other hand provide military equipment to kill and annihilate them…” Nicaraguan lawyer Daniel Daniel Mueller told the court.
Nicaragua has filed a lawsuit against Germany at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), asking the judges to take urgent measures to prevent Germany from providing arms and other aid to Israel.
Nicaraguan lawyer Alain Pellet said “Germany was and is fully aware that the weapons it has provided and provided to Israel” could be used to commit genocide.
He added that it was extremely urgent for “Germany to finally suspend” such aid.
Germany is due to respond in court on Tuesday but has already hit back at the accusations.
“We reject Nicaragua’s accusations,” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told reporters before the hearing.
“Germany has violated neither the Genocide Convention nor international humanitarian law, and we will fully prove this before the International Court of Justice,” he said.
Nicaragua accuses Germany of not knowing the suffering in Gaza but still providing military support to Israel.
In a 43-page submission to the court, Nicaragua argued that Germany violated the United Nations Convention on Genocide, which was established after the 1948 massacre.
“Germany seems unable to distinguish between self-defence and genocide,” Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos José Aguero Gomez, told the court.
Nicaragua asked the ICJ to decide on “provisional measures,” emergency orders while the court considers the broader case.
In its submission, the court said it was “imperative and urgent” to order such measures given that the lives of “hundreds of thousands” were at risk.
‘Unreasonable decision’
The ICJ was established to adjudicate disputes between states and has become a key player in the war between Israel and Hamas militants that broke out after the Oct. 7 attacks.
In a separate case, South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, a charge Israel strongly denies.
In that case, the court ordered Israel to make every effort to prevent acts of genocide and recently took a tougher stance, ordering additional measures to force Israel to increase its access to humanitarian aid.
The court’s rulings are binding but lack enforcement mechanisms – for example, it ordered Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine, but to no avail.
Nicaragua requested five provisional measures, including an “immediate suspension of German aid to Israel, in particular military aid including military equipment.”
It also called on the court to order Germany to “rescind its decision to suspend funding to UNRWA.”
Germany said in January it would withhold funding pending an investigation into Israeli accusations that several UNRWA staff were involved in the Oct. 7 attack.
“This unjust decision exacerbates the suffering in Gaza, where children, women and men are starving,” Mueller told the court.
In its submission, Nicaragua said it was “understandable” that Germany supported ally Israel’s “appropriate response” to Hamas’ October attacks.
“But this does not excuse violations of international law,” it said.
On Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock said Israel had “no more excuses” to delay aid entering Gaza.
The bloodiest war in Gaza ever began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians, according to AFP statistics based on official Israeli data.
The Palestinian organization Hamas has also taken about 250 hostages, of which about 130 remain in Gaza, 34 of whom the military said were dead.
Israeli retaliation has killed at least 33,175 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, while the United Nations has warned of “catastrophic” hunger.
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