Nicaragua tells International Court of Justice that Germany has facilitated genocide in Gaza

By Annette Gartland on April 9, 2024

Lawyers for Nicaragua yesterday (Monday) presented oral arguments at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague supporting their allegation that Germany has violated its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Nicaragua says that Germany has provided political, financial, and military support to Israel while fully aware that the military equipment would be used in the commission by Israel of “great breaches of international law” and in disregard of its own obligations.

It is calling on the ICJ to indicate provisional measures, including ordering Germany to immediately suspend its aid to Israel, including military equipment, “in so far as this aid may be used in the violation of the Genocide Convention, international humanitarian law, or other peremptory norms of general international law”.

Nicaragua says that the military equipment provided by Germany has enabled Israel to perpetrate genocidal acts and other atrocities.

The Nicaraguan ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos José Argüello Gómez, said that Germany was not only failing in its duties to prevent and punish breaches of the Geneva conventions but was complicit by aiding and assisting the commission of those breaches of international humanitarian law.

“There can be no question that Germany … was well aware and is well aware of at least the serious risk of genocide being committed, most certainly after your order of 26 January,” Argüello Gómez told the ICJ judges.

Argüello Gómez said there were states that were “pouring gasoline on the fire” in Gaza, that were supplying munitions of war to Israel, knowing they were being used against Palestinians in violation of international humanitarian law.

Sadly, and shamefully, important business interests were profiting from the ongoing Nakba in Gaza, he told the judges.

Argüello Gómez spoke of German companies that had directly profited from the situation in Gaza, substantially increasing the number of joint weapons development contracts with their Israeli counterparts. These companies’ share prices had risen since October 7, 2023, he said.

He said that Germany could not but be aware that the munitions, the military equipment, and the war weapons that it was supplying were used by Israel in its attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.

“It doesn’t matter whether an artillery shell is delivered straight from Germany to an Israeli tank shelling a hospital or university or whether that artillery shell goes to replenish Israel’s stockpile for use at some later date,” Argüello Gómez said.

It didn’t matter whether the planes used in combat, which were dropping bombs on the Palestinian population, were made entirely in Germany or just their spare parts and maintenance were supplied, he added.

The fact was that the assurance of supplies and the replacement of armaments was crucial to Israel’s pursuit of the attacks on Gaza, he said.

“Surprisingly, Germany seems not to be able to differentiate between self-defence and genocide,” Argüello Gómez said.

Nicaragua notes in its application to the ICJ that the United States and Germany are by far the largest arms exporters to Israel and shipments have increased since October 7, 2023.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 30% of Israel’s arms imports between 2019 and 2023 came from Germany and 69% came from the US.

Speaking for Nicaragua, German lawyer Daniel Müller told the ICJ judges that, on October 12, 2023, Germany’s defence minister confirmed that Germany had allowed Israel’s air forces to use two Heron military drones for what the minister called Israel’s defence battle.

The widespread and indiscriminate destruction caused by unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to civilians, civilian infrastructure, and homes had been widely reported, Müller said.

The fact that Germany was engaged in facilitating or improving the provision of humanitarian aid for the people suffering in Gaza did not change the picture, Müller said.

It was “a pathetic excuse” to the Palestinian children, women, and men in Gaza to provide humanitarian aid, including via airdrops, on the one hand, and to furnish the weapons and military equipment that were used to annihilate them, and also kill humanitarian aid workers, on the other, he told the ICJ judges.

French lawyer Alain Pellet said: “Germany’s going ahead with business as usual, or rather, as Danielle Müller explained, business better than usual. Arms sales have not ceased. They have increased significantly.”

He told the judges that Germany had failed, and continued to fail, to fulfil its own obligations to prevent genocide being committed and to punish those who were committing genocide or were involved in any of the acts set out in articles 2 and 3 of the Genocide Convention.

“Nobody, nobody owns the trademark of genocide. No state – not Israel, not Germany – can be free of the fundamental rules of international law under the pretext that they can defend themselves …,” Pellet said.

He said Germany was not legally responsible for “the inferno that has engulfed Gaza” or rather it was only responsible through its own breaches of its own international obligations linked to “this horrific situation”.

Germany was responsible to the extent that “these breaches have made possible or facilitated the grave violations of general international legal norms directed at the Palestinian people not only within the Gaza Strip, but also in the occupied territories and in Israel itself”, Pellet said.

Nicaragua has requested that the ICJ, as a matter of extreme urgency, pending the court’s determination of the case on the merits, indicate the following provisional measures with respect to Germany “in its participation in the ongoing plausible genocide and serious breaches of international humanitarian law and other peremptory norms of general international law occurring in the Gaza Strip, as well as in other parts of Palestine”:

Germany must immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance, export and authorization of export of military equipment and war weapons, in so far as this aid is used or could be used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of the Genocide Convention, international humanitarian law or other peremptory norms of general international law;
it must immediately ensure that military equipment, war weapons, and other equipment used for military purposes already delivered by Germany and German entities to Israel are not used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of the Genocide Convention, international humanitarian law or other peremptory norms of general international law; and
it must resume its support and financing of UNRWA in respect of its operations in Gaza.

In its application to the ICJ, Nicaragua asks the court to adjudge and declare that Germany has breached, and continues to breach, its obligations under the Genocide Convention, in particular the obligations provided in Article I by, “with full knowledge of the situation, failing to prevent the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, in particular Gazans”.

It further asks the court to adjudge and declare the following:

that Germany has breached, and continues to breach, the obligations provided in Article I by not only failing to prevent the ongoing genocide but by providing aid, including military equipment, to Israel that would be used in the commission of genocide by Israel and by withdrawing the financial assistance provided by UNRWA to the victims;
that it has failed to comply with other peremptory norms of general international law “in particular by rendering aid or assistance in maintaining the illegal situation of the continued military occupation of Palestine including its ongoing, unlawful attack in Gaza” and “by not preventing the illegal regime of apartheid and the negation of the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people”;
that it has breached, and continues to breach, international law by refusing to prosecute, bring to trial and punish persons responsible for, or accused of, grave crimes under international law, including war crimes and apartheid, whether or not such persons are German nationals; and
that it must make full reparation for the injury caused by “its internationally wrongful acts”.

Members of the Nicaraguan delegation at today’s hearing.

Today (Tuesday) Germany will present its oral arguments to the ICJ judges.

Speaking after the ICJ hearing, the director-general for legal affairs at the German Foreign Office, Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, said Nicaragua’s presentation was “grossly biased”. Germany, she said, was committed to upholding international law and would be telling the court in detail on Tuesday how it fully lived up to its responsibilities.

The UN’s Human Rights Council yesterday adopted a resolution condemning the alleged use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza and calling for an arms embargo on Israel.

Twenty-eight of the council’s 47 member states voted in favour of the resolution. The United States, Germany, Argentina, Bulgaria, Malawi, and Paraguay voted against. France, the Netherlands, Romania, and Albania were among the 13 countries that abstained.

Last week 1,000 lawyers, legal academics, and former members of the judiciary sent an open letter to the UK’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, stating that they were reminding him of his government’s obligations under international law, which required him to take, amongst others, the following actions:

work actively and effectively to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza;
take all available measures to ensure safe access to and delivery of the essentials of existence and medical assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, including confirmation that UK funding to UNRWA would continue with immediate effect;
impose sanctions upon individuals and entities who had made statements inciting genocide against Palestinians;
suspend the provision of weapons and weapons systems to the government of Israel; and
suspend the 2030 Road Map for UK-Israel bilateral relations and negotiations towards an enhanced trade agreement and consider the imposition of sanctions on Israel.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says that more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip.

More than 90% of those killed were civilians and the death toll includes more than 14,000 children, the organisation said.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimates that there are two million displaced people in the Gaza Strip who remain without a safe shelter amid inhumane conditions.

This article has been updated.