An article in the New York Times April 8 — Nicaragua Takes Germany to Court Over Supplying Arms to Israel — reports:
the legal battle at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Gaza conflict has been broadened by bringing a case against Germany, a major supplier of arms to Israel.
In hearings that opened on Monday (4/8) in The Hague, Nicaragua argued that Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide in Gaza and violating the Genocide Convention by providing Israel with military and financial aid.
Nicaragua’s ambassador to The Netherlands told the court:
“it does not matter if an artillery shell is delivered straight from Germany to an Israeli tank shelling a hospital” or goes to replenish Israel’s stockpiles. The fact is that the assurance of supplies and replacement of armaments is crucial to Israel’s pursuit of the attacks in Gaza.”
Nicaragua’s ambassador also said Germany is aware of “the serious risk of genocide being committed.” Asking the court to issue emergency orders, Nicaragua said:
as a party to the Genocide Convention, Germany must immediately suspend military aid to Israel and ensure that its supplies already in the country are not unlawfully used.
The NYT article says the case brought by Nicaragua “raises new questions about the liability of countries that have supplied weapons to Israel for the war in Gaza.”
Lawyers say that Germany — Israel’s second-largest arms provider, after the United States — is an easier target for a suit than is the United States. Germany has granted full jurisdiction to the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest court. But the United States denies its jurisdiction, except in cases where Washington explicitly gives its consent.
The NYT article describes the Nicaragua case as “far broader in scope” than the case South Africa brought to the ICJ in January, as it invokes both violations of the Geneva Conventions and the convention against genocide and requiring the protection of civilians. Nicaragua also accuses Israel of “unlawful” conduct in the occupied territories.
The article reports that the ICJ has not yet accepted the case, “but it is obliged to react quickly to requests for emergency measures, as in this case.”
The article comments on Germany’s support for Israel:
“supporting Israel is seen as a historic duty in Germany in light of the Holocaust, but the mounting toll in Gaza has pushed some German officials to ask whether that backing has gone too far.”
The article also explains that countries “have turned to the court because efforts by the United Nations and other negotiators have failed so far to stop the war in Gaza.” In addition, it quotes a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group:
“The ICJ is not going to end the war in Gaza, but it is a diplomatic tool that foreign policy uses to apply additional pressure on Israel. In the Nicaragua case, it further applies pressure on Germany.”
In response on Tuesday, April 9, according to a New York Times article on that date, Germany argued at the ICJ that “most of the equipment it has supplied since Oct. 7 was nonlethal and that it has also been one of the largest donors of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.” The article continues:
Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States. In 2023, Berlin approved military equipment to Israel valued at about $353.7 million. That is roughly 10 times the sum approved the previous year.