The United Nations court will start hearings on Monday in a case that wants Germany to stop giving military and other help to Israel. The case says Germany is helping in acts of genocide and breaking international laws in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Israel says that its military actions do not break the Genocide Convention.
Nicaragua’s case is mainly about Germany, but it also criticizes Israel’s military actions in Gaza after the deadly Oct. incident. In 2007, Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, and about 1,200 people were killed. Over 33,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The toll doesn’t care if someone is a civilian or a fighter, but it has been reported that most of the people who have died are women and children.
“We are peaceful and we will explain our side in court,” said Sebastian Fischer, a spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry, before the hearings.
“We do not agree with Nicaragua’s accusations,” Fischer told reporters in Berlin on Friday. Germany did not break the rules about genocide or international humanitarian law, and we will explain this in detail at the International Court of Justice.
Nicaragua asked the court to order Germany to stop giving military aid to Israel because it may be used to violate international law.
The court will probably need a few weeks to make its first decision, and Nicaragua’s case could take many years to be resolved.
On Monday, there was a meeting at the world court about the need for countries to stop giving weapons to Israel. This is because Israel has been attacking Gaza for six months and causing a lot of damage.
The attack has forced most people in Gaza to leave their homes. There is not enough food, the UN says that a famine is coming, and only a few Palestinians have been able to leave the area that is surrounded by enemies.
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at the University of Notre Dame thinks that the upcoming court case in The Hague will probably make more people against giving any support to Israel.
On Friday, the highest group that looks after people’s rights at the United Nations asked countries to stop sending weapons to Israel. The United States and Germany were against the resolution.
Many British legal experts, including three former Supreme Court judges, want their government to stop selling weapons to Israel after three U. KPeople from World Central Kitchen charity were killed in Israeli strikes, along with other aid workers. Israel said that they attacked the aid workers by accident because they thought they were someone else.
For many years, Germany has strongly supported Israel. Days after October. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that because of Germany’s history and responsibility from the Holocaust, they will always support and protect the state of Israel’s security.
Berlin changed its opinion because many innocent people in Gaza have been hurt. They are now very concerned about the people in Gaza and are against a military attack in Rafah.
Nicaragua’s government has connections to Palestinian groups since the 1979 Sandinista revolution. UN experts accused the government of committing serious human rights abuses this year, but President Daniel Ortega denied the allegations.
In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to do everything it can to stop people from dying, things from being destroyed, and genocide from happening in Gaza. South Africa filed a case accusing Israel of breaking the Genocide Convention.
Last week, the court told Israel to do more to help the people in Gaza. They need more ways to get food, water, fuel, and other things they need.
On Friday, Israel announced that it is opening a border crossing into northern Gaza to help get more aid to the people living there.
Nicaragua is saying that by helping Israel with political, financial and military support and by stopping funding for the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, UNWRA, Germany is making it easier for genocide to happen. And Germany has not done enough to stop it.
Israel says it’s not committing genocide, they are just defending themselves. In January, Israeli legal advisor Tal Becker told judges that the country is fighting a war that they did not begin or want.