By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS (Worthy News) – The top U.N. court has rejected a request by Nicaragua to order Germany to halt military and other aid to Israel. It also declined Nicaragua’s demand to Germany to renew funding to the U.N. aid agency in Gaza.
The International Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that the legal conditions for making such an order weren’t met and ruled against the request in a 15-1 vote.
The court will still hear arguments from both sides on the merits of Nicaragua’s case, which alleges that, by giving support to Israel, Germany failed to prevent “genocide” in Gaza.
Israel says its war is directed against Hamas, which it says was involved in the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust, or Shoah, in Israel on October 7 when it killed some 1,200 people and took hundreds more as hostages.
The case will likely take months or years.
Nicaragua alleges that Germany is breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention by supplying military aid to Israel amid the Gaza war.
“Germany is failing to honor its own obligation to prevent genocide or to ensure respect of international humanitarian law,” Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, said at the hearings.
EXPORTING ARMS
Germany, a longtime supporter of Israel, argued that it has exported few weapons to the country since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry claims more than 34,000 Palestinians died, but those figures have been impossible to verify.
Tuesday’s ruling came after South Africa asked the International Court of Justice in a separate case to take emergency measures against Israel last December, alleging the country is responsible for apartheid against Palestinians.
The International Court of Justice eventually ordered measures for Israel “to prevent genocide in Gaza,” but it declined to declare Israel’s military operation an illegal “genocide” act.
Israeli legal adviser Tal Becker told judges in that case that Israel is fighting a “war it did not start and did not want.”
A separate investigation into Israel by the International Criminal Court could, however, issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
The International Criminal Court inquiry was launched in 2021. It covers possible war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian fighters going back to 2014.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday expressed concern that the court could soon press charges, which he called “a scandal on a historic scale.”
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