Foreign Policy reports: “Nicaragua asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday [April 8, 2024] to order Germany to stop all arms exports to Israel. …Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms provider after Washington, with the former having sent $353.7 million in military equipment to Israel in 2023.”
“[This case] raises new questions about the liability of other countries that have supplied weapons to Israel.”
The article adds: “A preliminary decision will likely take weeks to deliver, and the case, if accepted, could last for years.”
The specific provisional measures sought would call on Germany to “immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance” and to “immediately ensure that military equipment or weapons or other equipment used for military purposes already delivered by Germany and German entities to Israel are not used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of the Genocide Convention or international humanitarian law.”
The BBC also notes: “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.”
Carlos Arguello Gomez, Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, says: “Germany cannot but be aware that the arms and munitions it supplies to Israel are supporting attacks in Gaza, even if they’re not being immediately used for that purpose. It doesn’t matter whether an artillery shell is delivered straight from Germany to a tank shelling a hospital or whether it goes to replenish Israel’s stockpile. The fact is that security of supply is crucial to Israel’s prosecution of its campaign in Gaza.”
France 24 further notes: “Argüello Gómez urged the court to include U.S. supplies in its preliminary orders, known as provisional measures.”
But that article cautions: “According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Germany 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.”
German lawyers and civil servants also call for an end to arms exports
The Guardian adds: “German lawyers have [also] brought a case calling for Germany to end its arms sales to Israel. Britain and other governments are facing the same pressures, while a Dutch court found a ‘clear risk’ that exported F-35 jet parts could be used in breaches of international humanitarian law.”
Additionally, Aljazeera has reported: “A group of German civil servants have written to Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other senior ministers calling on the government to ‘cease arm deliveries to the Israeli government with immediate effect’.”
Their letter says: “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.”
PBI calls for a suspension of arms to Israel
Peace Brigades International has called on the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel and to show its strong support for institutions of global justice, including the International Court of Justice.
We continue to follow this.
Published by Brent Patterson on