Nicaragua accused Germany of supporting Israel's genocide

World 10 April, 2024 12:49

Germany has rejected Nicaragua’s accusations that it is enabling a "genocide" by Israel in the Gaza Strip, Politico reports.

“They have no basis in fact or law,” top German official Tania von Uslar-Gleichen said in The Hague on Tuesday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Nicaragua's filing contends that Germany — a major arms supplier to Israel, second only to the U.S. — is facilitating genocide and breaching the Genocide Convention by supplying Israel with military and financial assistance as it fights Hamas militants in the coastal enclave. The death toll in the strip has surpassed 30,000, according to the Palestinian authorities in Gaza and international observers.

Nicaragua wants the court to compel Berlin to cease its military support for Israel during wartime.

But Uslar-Gleichen said that Nicaragua “rushed to bring this case to court on the basis of the flimsiest of evidence,” stressing that Germany “has left no stone unturned” to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as its Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock traveled many times to the region to discuss aid issues.

Germany, however, has still not lifted its ban on funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, after the agency was accused of aiding Hamas fighters — a claim that was dismissed in March by a top EU humanitarian aid official Janez Lenarčič as unfounded since Israeli officials had not provided any evidence.

German officials have faced increasing domestic hostility to the continuation of arms sales to Israel. In 2023, Germany approved weapons exports to Israel worth €326.5 million.

While supporting Israel is seen as a historic duty in Germany due to the Nazi Holocaust, the mounting death toll has led some German officials to ask whether that backing is going too far.