Germany denies encouraging acts of genocide in Gaza

On Tuesday, Germany said no to a case brought by Nicaragua at the United Nations’ top court. Nicaragua accused Germany of helping Israel in its attack on Gaza, which goes against international laws. Germany denied these accusations.

Christian Tams, a member of Germany’s legal team, told the 16-judge panel at the International Court of Justice that when they examine the evidence closely, Nicaragua’s accusations don’t hold up.

On Monday, Nicaragua asked judges to stop Germany from giving military help to Israel. They said that Germany’s support allows genocide and breaks international humanitarian laws in Gaza.

Germany’s legal team leader, Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, said Nicaragua’s claims are not true in fact or law. “They need to wait for Israel to give their opinion, even though Israel is not involved in this case. ”

On Monday and Tuesday, there were initial hearings about Nicaragua’s request for temporary actions. They want a court order for Berlin to stop giving military support to Israel and give money again to the UN aid agency in Gaza.

Germany’s representative, Von Uslar-Gleichen, asked the judges not to make any quick decisions and to reject Nicaragua’s case.

Tams stated that Germany had only allowed four weapon exports to Israel since October, and three of them were for test or practice equipment.

Tams showed judges a picture of German help being dropped by airplane to Gaza. He said that Germany keeps giving help to Palestinians every day, even when it’s very tough, and works with other countries to help.

Nicaragua is the most recent country trying to stop Israel’s attack. South Africa also went to court last year accusing Israel of causing a lot of harm. This is happening as more and more people are asking other countries to stop giving weapons to Israel, and some of Israel’s friends, like Germany, are starting to criticize the war.

During Monday’s meetings, Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos José Argüello Gómez, said that Germany did not do enough to stop genocide or follow international humanitarian laws.

But another lawyer from Germany, Samuel Wordsworth, said that the court cannot say Germany is not stopping genocide because it hasn’t said Israel is breaking the rules.

In the early stage of the case that South Africa brought last year, the UN court said that it is possible that Israel’s actions in Gaza might break the convention.

Wordsworth asked, “How can we say there was a failure to respect a third state, if we haven’t proven that the third state didn’t respect in the first place. ”

The court will probably take a few weeks to make its first decision, and Nicaragua’s case is probably going to last for many years.

Israel says it’s not trying to commit genocide and is only defending itself after militants from Hamas attacked southern Israel in October. 7 battles resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people.

Since then, over 33,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. It doesn’t matter if they are civilians or fighters, but most of the people who have been killed are women and children.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says that Germany is second after the US in giving weapons to Israel. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to bring the US to court because Washington does not accept the ICJ’s authority to make countries go to court. The US has not agreed to a rule that lets countries bring arguments to the court about genocide.