Nicaragua urges ICJ to reject Germany’s bid to throw out Gaza genocide case

Germany says ICJ lacks jurisdiction in Nicaragua genocide case

Nicaragua has urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to allow its case against Germany to continue, saying its arms exports to Israel violate the 1948 Genocide Convention and humanitarian law, as they were used in the genocidal war on Gaza.

The appeal came on Tuesday as public hearings on the preliminary objections raised by Germany took place in The Hague. Germany told the court on Monday that the case was improperly filed and should be thrown out.

“Nicaragua’s conduct indicates that it was not interested in hearing Germany’s view on its allegations, but simply in bringing Germany before this court,” Julia Monar, Germany’s top lawyer, told the judges.

Countries are typically expected to attempt to resolve disputes before bringing them to the court.

Lawyers for Nicaragua denied this, pointing to documents sent to the German foreign ministry as well as press releases describing the dispute.

Two years have passed since Nicaragua filed the case against Germany for “facilitating” the genocide in Gaza. Germany is the second-largest supplier of arms to Israel after the United States.

Nicaragua’s top lawyer, Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, told the court that “it is impossible” Germany was not aware of the “serious risk that acts that could amount to genocide were being committed by Israel”.