Editorial Note: The
following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may
also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology.
Comments are in parentheses.
***
Nicaragua Takes Germany to the International Court of Justice for
Participation in the Israeli Genocidal War on Gaza Strip, Through
Weapon Sales and Starvation of the Palestinian Population
April 8, 2024
Pro-Palestine activists
standing in front of the International Court of Justice in the
Hague, while Nicaragua presents the genocide case against
Germany, April 8, 2024
The
ICJ Courthouse in the Hague, where Nicaragua took Germany over
its role in the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, through weapon
sales, April 8, 2024
Nicaraguan Ambassador Carlos Jose Arguello
Gomez sits next to lawyer Alain Pellet presented the case
against Germany for its role in the genocide and starvations
of Palestinians in Gaza, April 8, 2024
Example of daily genocidal: 50 Palestinians were killed, 83
were injured on Day 180 of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza
Strip, mostly children and women, April 3, 2024
***
Germany faces Gaza genocide case at International Court of Justice
Monday 8-April-2024
THE HAGUE, (PIC)
Germany faced charges from Nicaragua at the top UN court on Monday,
April 8, 2024, that it is “facilitating
the commission of genocide” against the Palestinian
population in Gaza Strip, with its military and political support for
Israel.
Nicaragua has hauled Germany before the International Court of
Justice (ICJ), demanding judges impose emergency measures to stop
Berlin providing Israel with weapons and other assistance.
“Germany has violated neither the Genocide Convention nor
international humanitarian law and we will demonstrate this in full
before the International Court of Justice,” added Fischer.
Nicaragua set out its case on Monday, with Germany due to respond
the following day.
In a 43-page submission to the court, Nicaragua said that Germany
is in breach of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, set up in
the wake of the Holocaust.
“By sending military equipment and now defunding UNRWA (UN agency
for Palestinian refugees)… Germany is facilitating the commission of
genocide,” says the submission.
“Germany’s failure is all the more reprehensible with respect to
Israel given that Germany has a self-proclaimed privileged
relationship with it, which would enable it to usefully influence its
conduct,” added Nicaragua.
Nicaragua asked the ICJ to decide “provisional measures” —
emergency orders imposed while the court considers the broader case.
It is “imperative and urgent” the court orders such measures given
that the lives of “hundreds of thousands of people” are at stake, runs
the Nicaraguan case.
In a separate case, South Africa has accused Israel of perpetrating
genocide in the Gaza Strip and filed a case against it at the ICJ.
Germany faces genocide case
over Israel weapon sales
Story by Matt Murphy -
BBC News, April 8, 2024
Nicaragua will ask the UN's highest court to halt German weapons
sales to Israel in a landmark case.
Germany is accused of breaching the UN genocide convention by
sending military hardware to Israel and ceasing funding of the UN's
aid agency.
Berlin rejects the claims and will present a defence to the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday.
In 2023 some 30% of Israel's military equipment purchases came from
Germany, totaling €300m ($326m; $257m).
The allegations build on a separate case taken by South Africa in
January, where judges in the Hague ordered
Israel to take "every possible measure" to avoid genocidal acts.
The court also ordered 'Hamas to release all hostages taken from
Israel during its 7 October attacks immediately.
Israel rejects accusations that it is engaging in genocidal acts in
its campaign in Gaza, and has insisted it has the right to defend
itself.
More than 33,000 Gazans have been killed in Israel's offensive in
Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says, the majority of them
civilians. Gaza is on the brink of famine, with Oxfam reporting that
300,000 people trapped in the north have lived since January on an
average of 245 calories a day.
Nicaragua says Germany's arms sales to Israel, which totaled
$326.5m last year - a tenfold increase on 2022 - make it complicit in
Israel's alleged war crimes.
Components for air defence systems and communications equipment
accounted for most of the sales, according to the DPA news agency.
According to papers filed with the ICJ, Nicaragua wants the UN's
top court to order Berlin to halt weapons sales and resume funding of
the aid agency, one of the few international bodies still operating in
Gaza.
It says in the absence of such measures, "Germany is facilitating
the commission of genocide and is failing in its obligation to do
everything possible to prevent the commission of genocide".
Berlin has rejected the allegations, but has remained tight-lipped
about its legal strategy ahead of the hearings.
"We note Nicaragua's lawsuit and we deny the allegations as
unjustified", government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been a vocal supporter of Israel's right
to self-defense, but he has faced increasing domestic hostility to the
continuation of arms sales to the country.
On Sunday, a group of civil servants wrote to the German leader
calling on the government to "cease arm deliveries to the Israeli
government with immediate effect".
"Israel is committing crimes in Gaza that are in clear
contradiction to international law and thus to the Constitution, which
we are bound to as federal civil servants and public employees," the
statement said, citing January's ICJ ruling.
In January's case, the ICJ ruled that "at least some of the acts
and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel
in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the
Convention".
Nicaragua says Germany must be aware of genocide risk
Accuses Berlin of ignoring international obligations
Germany says it has not violated genocide convention
THE HAGUE, April 8, 2024 (Reuters) -
Nicaragua asked the International Court of Justice on Monday to
order Germany to halt military arms exports to Israel and to resume
its funding of U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, saying there is
a serious risk of genocide in Gaza.
Nicaragua's ambassador Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez told the court
Berlin had violated the 1948 Genocide Convention by continuing to
supply Israel with arms after ICJ judges ruled it was plausible that
Israel violated some rights guaranteed under the genocide convention
during its assault on Gaza.
"There can be no question that Germany (...) was well aware, and is
well aware, of at least the serious risk of genocide being committed,"
in the Gaza strip, Arguello Gomez said. He told the judges that Berlin
was ignoring its obligations under international law by continuing to
provide military assistance to Israel.
"This has got to stop," Arguello Gomez said. Israel has denied
allegations of genocide and said it has the right to defend itself.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue The German government rejected
Nicaragua's allegations.
"Germany does not, and never did, violate the Genocide Convention
nor international humanitarian law, neither directly nor indirectly,"
Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, a legal advisor for the German Foreign
Ministry told journalists at the ICJ.
Berlin will present its case in more detail in court on Tuesday.
Germany has been one of Israel's staunchest allies since the Oct. 7
attacks by Hamas militants which killed 1,200 people, according to
Israeli tallies.
It is also one of the major arms exporters to
Israel, sending 326.5 million euros ($353.70 million) in military
equipment and weapons in 2023, according to Economy Ministry data.
Since October 7, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in
Israel's military
offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the
Hamas-run enclave.
Nicaragua's case at the ICJ, also known as the World Court, builds
on a genocide case South Africa brought against Israel. Advertisement
· Scroll to continue In January the ICJ ruled South Africa's claims
that Israel violated some rights guaranteed under the genocide
convention during its assault on Gaza were plausible and ordered
emergency measures, including a call for Israel to halt any potential
acts of genocide.
Germany and the United States are among major donors which
suspended funding to UNRWA after allegations that around 12 of its
tens of thousands of Palestinian employees were suspected of
involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks.
The agency provides vital aid to Gaza, where many people are now on
the brink of starvation. Berlin has since resumed some funding to
UNRWA's regional work in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, but
not to their Gaza branch, a foreign ministry official told Reuters.
Nicaragua asks
top UN court to stop German military aid to Israel amid war in Gaza
NPR, Apr 8, 2024
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) —
Nicaragua called on the United Nations’ top court on Monday to halt
German military aid to Israel, arguing that Berlin’s support enables
acts of genocide and breaches of international humanitarian law in
Gaza.
The case at the International Court of Justice is against Germany,
which is the second-largest supplier of arms to Israel after the U.S.,
but it also indirectly takes aim at Israel’s 6-month-old
military campaign, which has left tens of thousands of
Palestinians dead and devastated Gaza.
Nicaragua’s allegations represent the latest legal attempt by a
country with historic ties to the Palestinian people to stop Israel’s
offensive, after South Africa accused Israel of genocide at the court
late last year. They also come amid growing calls for Israel’s allies
to stop supplying the country with weapons — and as some supporters,
including Germany, have grown
more critical of the war.
Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos José Argüello
Gómez, told the 16-judge panel that “Germany is failing to honor its
own obligation to prevent genocide or to ensure respect of
international humanitarian law.”
Germany will present its arguments Tuesday. The head of its legal
team, Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, called Nicaragua’s case “grossly
biased” and denied that Berlin is breaching international law.
Since then, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza,
according to the
territory’s Health Ministry. Its toll doesn’t differentiate
between civilians and combatants, but it has said women and children
make up the majority of the dead.
The court will likely take weeks to deliver its preliminary
decision, and Nicaragua’s case will probably drag on for years.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute,
German is second only to the U.S. in supplying arms to Israel — but it
would be harder, if not impossible, for the U.S. to be brought before
the court because Washington does not recognize the ICJ’s power to
compel countries to appear before it. The U.S. also has not signed a
protocol to the Genocide Convention that allows countries to bring
disputes to the court.
Nicaragua, nevertheless, sought to include U.S. arms supplies in
its case, saying that Berlin and Washington collaborate on some
military programs. Argüello Gómez urged the court to include U.S.
supplies in its preliminary orders, known as provisional measures.
Nicaragua has asked the court to order Germany to “immediately
suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance
including military equipment in so far as this aid may be used in the
violation of the Genocide Convention” and international law.
It also wants the court to order Germany to resume funding to the
United Nations aid agency in Gaza in addition to the aid Berlin is
already providing.
“It is indeed a pathetic excuse to the Palestinian children, women
and men in Gaza to provide humanitarian aid, including through
airdrops, on the one hand, and to furnish the weapons and military
equipment that are used to kill and annihilate them” and humanitarian
workers, Nicaragua lawyer Daniel Müller told judges.
Dozens of flag-waving pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated
outside the court.
Sliman Abu Amara, a Dutch citizen of Palestinian descent, said he
was grateful to Nicaragua for taking Germany to court, noting “the
irony is that Germany is actually behind the whole international
convention on preventing the genocide.”
On Friday, the U.N.’s top human rights body called on countries to
stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel. The United States and
Germany opposed the resolution.
Germany has for decades been a staunch supporter of Israel. Days
after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, Chancellor Olaf Scholz explained:
“Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes
it a perpetual task for us to stand up for the security of the state
of Israel,” he told lawmakers.
Berlin, however, has gradually shifted its tone as civilian
casualties in Gaza have soared, becoming increasingly critical of the
humanitarian situation in Gaza and speaking out against a ground
offensive in Rafa'h.
Nicaragua’s government, which has historical links with Palestinian
organizations dating back to their support for the 1979 Sandinista
revolution, was itself accused earlier this year by U.N.-backed human
rights experts of systematic human rights abuses “tantamount to crimes
against humanity.” The government of President Daniel Ortega fiercely
rejected the allegations.
INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Peace Palace, Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague,
Netherlands
Tel.: +31 (0)70 302 2323 Fax: +31 (0)70 364 9928
Website X YouTube LinkedIn
Press Release
Unofficial No.
2024/19 1 March
2024
The Republic of Nicaragua institutes proceedings
against the Federal Republic of Germany and
requests the Court to indicate provisional
measures
THE HAGUE, 1 March 2024.
Nicaragua today filed an Application instituting
proceedings against Germany before the
International Court of Justice for alleged
violations by Germany of its obligations deriving
from the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the “Genocide
Convention”), the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and
their Additional Protocols, “intransgressible
principles of international humanitarian law” and
other norms of general international law in
relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
particularly the Gaza Strip.
The Applicant states that “[e]ach and every
Contracting Party to the Genocide Convention has a
duty under the Convention to do everything
possible to prevent the commission of genocide”
and that, since October 2023, there has been “a
recognised risk of genocide against the
Palestinian people, directed first of all against
the population of the Gaza Strip”. Nicaragua
argues that by providing political, financial and
military support to Israel and by defunding the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA),
“Germany is facilitating the commission of
genocide and, in any case has failed in its
obligation to do everything possible to prevent
the commission of genocide.”
Nicaragua seeks to found the Court’s jurisdiction
on the declarations by which both States accept
the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court and on
the compromissory clause contained in Article IX
of the Genocide Convention.
The Application also contains a Request for the
indication of provisional measures, pursuant to
Article 41 of the Statute of the Court and
Articles 73, 74 and 75 of the Rules of Court.
Nicaragua requests the Court to indicate
provisional measures as a matter of extreme
urgency, pending the Court’s determination on the
merits of the case, with respect to Germany’s
“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.”
Pursuant to Article 74 of the Rules of Court, “[a]
request for the indication of provisional measures
shall have priority over all other cases”.
___________ - 2
-
The Application instituting proceedings, which
includes the Request for the indication of
provisional measures, is available on the Court’s
website.
___________
Note: The Court’s press releases are prepared by
its Registry for information purposes only and do
not constitute official documents.
___________
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the
principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It
was established by the United Nations Charter in
June 1945 and began its activities in April 1946.
The Court is composed of 15 judges elected for a
nine-year term by the General Assembly and the
Security Council of the United Nations. The seat
of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague
(Netherlands). The Court has a twofold role:
first, to settle, in accordance with international
law, legal disputes submitted to it by States;
and, second, to give advisory opinions on legal
questions referred to it by duly authorized United
Nations organs and agencies of the system.
___________
Information Department:
Ms Monique Legerman, First Secretary of the Court,
Head of Department: +31 (0)70 302 2336
Ms Joanne Moore, Information Officer: +31 (0)70
302 2337 Mr Avo
Sevag Garabet, Associate Information Officer: +31
(0)70 302 2394
Email:info@icj-cij.org
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