Germany on Tuesday defended itself on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice towards accusations that its arms shipments to Israel had been furthering genocide in Gaza, arguing that many of the gear it has provided since Oct. 7 was nonlethal and that it has additionally been one of many largest donors of humanitarian support to the Palestinians.
On the U.N. court docket in The Hague, attorneys for Germany mentioned that the allegations introduced by Nicaragua had “no foundation the truth is or regulation” and rested on an evaluation of army conduct by Israel, which isn’t a celebration to the case.
“Germany firmly rejects Nicaragua’s accusations,” Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, an official at Germany’s International Ministry and lead counsel within the case, informed the 15-judge bench, including that Nicaragua had “rushed this case to court docket on the idea of flimsiest proof.”
On Monday, Nicaragua had argued that Germany was facilitating the fee of genocide towards Palestinians in Gaza by offering Israel with army and monetary support, and it requested for emergency measures ordering the German authorities to halt its help. The court docket is predicted to determine inside weeks whether or not to problem emergency measures.
The proceedings, which concluded Tuesday, had been the third time in latest months that the U.N. court docket turned a discussion board for nations to place stress on Israel and help Palestinians.
Earlier this 12 months, the court docket heard arguments by South Africa that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and ordered the Israeli authorities to take steps to stop such atrocities. The court docket has not dominated on whether or not genocide was the truth is happening, an allegation that Israel has strongly denied.
The most recent case, introduced by a Nicaraguan authorities that itself has been broadly accused of repression and human rights violations, has positioned a highlight on Germany, Israel’s second-largest arms provider after america. Germany’s management calls help for Israel a “Staatsräson,” a nationwide motive for existence, as a approach of atoning for the Holocaust.
However the mounting dying toll and humanitarian disaster in Gaza have led some German officers to ask whether or not that backing has gone too far.
Legal professionals for Germany urged the court docket to throw out the case. They argued that Germany has tried to stability the pursuits of each Israel and the Palestinians, and offered figures exhibiting that Berlin was among the many largest particular person donors to the U.N. and different companies that present humanitarian support to Gaza.
“Germany has at all times been a robust supporter of the rights of the Palestinian individuals,” Ms. von Uslar-Gleichen mentioned. “That is, alongside Israel’s safety, the second precept that has guided Germany’s response to the Center East battle usually, and to its present escalation particularly.”
In 2023, Germany authorised arms exports to Israel valued at 326.5 million euros, or about $353.7 million, in keeping with figures printed by the economics ministry. That’s roughly 10 instances the sum authorised the earlier 12 months.
Germany’s authorized group argued on Tuesday that almost all of its exports had been nonlethal help, similar to protecting gear, communications gear and protection gear towards chemical hazards. Christian Tams, a lawyer for Germany, denied Nicaragua’s claims that Germany had elevated weapons provides to Israel because the Oct. 7 Hamas assault, saying that since then “no artillery shells, no munitions had been licensed.”
“The image offered by Nicaragua is at greatest inaccurate, and at worst it’s a deliberate misrepresentation of the particular scenario,” he mentioned.
Whereas it was not doable to independently confirm the figures offered by Mr. Tams, they had been roughly according to these offered earlier this 12 months by the German authorities, in response to a query from a lawmaker, when it mentioned that solely about 6 p.c of its army exports to Israel had been for what it known as “weapons of battle.”
Critics have mentioned that there’s little distinction between the varieties of weapons offered to Israel whereas it’s at battle. On Monday, Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, informed the court docket that “it doesn’t matter if an artillery shell is delivered straight from Germany to an Israeli tank shelling a hospital” or goes to replenish Israel’s stockpiles.
Pieter D. Wezeman, a senior researcher on the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute, which tracks international arms exports, mentioned the German place is according to typical arms exports to Israel.
“Whereas they don’t do the killing straight, they’re an important a part of the general system, the armed forces of a rustic, which really make it doable to have interaction in warfare,” he mentioned.
Legal professionals say that Germany is a better goal for a go well with than is america, by far Israel’s foremost army supporter. Germany has granted full jurisdiction to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice. However america denies its jurisdiction, besides in instances the place Washington explicitly provides its consent.
