FALCON POWERS – Germany has stated that it places the security of Israel at the “core” of its foreign policy and is responding to accusations of genocide before the International Court of Justice.
Nicaragua has filed a lawsuit accusing Germany of violating the United Nations Convention on Genocide by sending weapons to Israel and suspending its funding to UN relief organizations.
Berlin has denied the charges brought against it before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In 2023, Israel acquired 30% of its military equipment from Germany, with a total value of 300 million euros. This case is based on another case brought by South Africa in January, in which the judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Israel to take all possible measures to prevent acts of genocide. Israel denies committing acts of genocide in its military campaign in Gaza and insists on its right to self-defense.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 33,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attack on Gaza, most of them civilians. Gaza is on the brink of famine, as a report by the humanitarian organization Oxfam stated that 300,000 Palestinians have been living on 245 calories per day since January. Nicaragua argues that Germany’s arms sales to Israel, which amounted to 326.5 million dollars last year, ten times higher than the previous year, make Germany complicit in the war crimes that Israel is accused of.
In its lawsuit, Nicaragua requests that the judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague take urgent measures to prevent Berlin from supplying Israel with weapons and other aids.
Germany strongly denied the allegations, with its representative describing Nicaragua’s lawsuit as “hasty” and based on “flimsy” evidence, and as being directed against Israel.
Lawyer Tania van Osch-Golliher stated that “Nicaragua, in persisting with this lawsuit against Germany, has taken into account only one perspective of the conflict while neglecting the facts and laws related to the situation.”
She added in her argument before the court, “Our history is what made us place the security of Israel at the core of our foreign policy.”
“Germany has indeed provided assistance to Israel in the form of weapons and military equipment, but Nicaragua has distorted the truth about the nature and uses of these weapons and equipment.”
At the beginning of her plea, she stated that Germany is “doing everything in its power to fulfill its responsibility” towards both Palestinians and Israelis.
She further added that Germany’s responsibility is to remind Israel of the rules of international humanitarian law, even as it exercises its “right to self-defense.”
