On Monday, Nicaragua, a longtime backer of the Palestinian cause, filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Germany–a key arms supplier to Israel–for widening the legal struggle over the Gaza crisis.
Nicaragua said at proceedings commencing in The Hague that Germany is aiding genocide in Gaza and breaching the Genocide Convention by providing Israel with military and financial assistance.
Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, conveyed to the court, “It does not matter if an artillery shell is delivered straight from Germany to an Israeli tank shelling a hospital,” or whether monetary proceeds are transferred to refill Israel’s stockpile.
The Central American country requested that the court impose emergency measures, stating that as a signatory to the Genocide Convention, Germany must immediately restrict military aid to Israel and guarantee that supplies currently in the country are not unjustly utilized.
Spokesperson for the German Chancellery Christine Hoffman told media last week that the government rejects Nicaragua’s charges. It had been anticipated that Germany would officially respond to the allegations by Tuesday morning.
Nicaragua’s government is currently under sanctions for its oppressive domestic policies. In February, a United Nations special investigation stated that the government’s various violations, including the imprisonment and deportation of opposition activists and Roman Catholic clergy, were “tantamount to crimes against humanity.”
Nicaragua’s complaint, filed on Monday in The Hague, raises fresh doubts regarding the accountability of countries which supplied weapons to Israel to escalate the Gaza conflict.
According to lawyers, Germany, Israel’s second-largest arms supplier behind the United States, is a more likely target for a lawsuit than the United States. Germany has granted complete authority to the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations. However, the United States rejects jurisdiction, except in circumstances in which Washington specifically consents. Nicaragua’s lawsuit is the third one before the court this year involving the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
South Africa initially requested emergency measures from the court, claiming that Israel was on the verge of committing genocide, which the court considered reasonable but which Israel has vigorously rejected.
The court ordered Israel to guarantee that its people and military do not breach the Genocide Convention, which Israel had ratified. The agreement explicitly prohibits activities aimed at completely or partially destroying a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
In February, the court heard a case requested by the UN Secretary-General regarding the legitimacy of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
Those hearings were scheduled well in advance of the conflict and were heard from over 50 nations, the majority of which expressed their outrage and displeasure with Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza and the rising death toll among civilians.
The Nicaraguan case is far larger in nature than South Africa’s, involving violations of both the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Genocide, as well as the safeguarding of individual freedoms. It also accuses Israel of engaging in “unlawful” behavior in the Palestinian territory.
The court has not yet accepted the case, but it is required to respond expeditiously to petitions for emergency measures, of which this one solidly fits the criteria.