Germany on Tuesday began defending itself at the International Court of Justice against allegations that it is furthering genocide in Gaza by supplying arms to Israel.
Nicaragua brought the case against Germany to the court in The Hague. In hearings that opened on Monday, Nicaragua argued that Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza by providing Israel with military and financial aid, and it asked for emergency measures ordering the German government to halt its wartime support to Israel.
Berlin has denied violating the Genocide Convention or international humanitarian law, and sent a delegation of international lawyers, including some from Britain and Italy, to the U.N. court.
Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States and a nation whose leadership calls support for the country a “Staatsräson,” a national reason for existence, as a way of atoning for the Holocaust. But the mounting death toll in Gaza and humanitarian crisis in the enclave have led some German officials to ask whether that backing has gone too far.
In 2023, Germany approved arms exports to Israel valued at 326.5 million euros, or about $353.7 million, according to figures published by the economics ministry. That is roughly 10 times the sum approved the previous year.
“Israel’s existence is a matter of state for us,” Katrin Göring-Eckardt, a vice president of Germany’s Parliament, told Deutschlandfunk, a public broadcaster, in an interview aired Tuesday. She cited Germany’s “special responsibility toward Israel” after the Holocaust, especially after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that prompted Israel to go to war in Gaza.
Ms. Göring-Eckardt added that the German government discusses “each individual arms delivery and talks with Israel about compliance with international humanitarian law in this military conflict.”
On Monday, Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, told the court that “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 case brought by Nicaragua in The Hague raises new questions about the liability of countries that have supplied weapons to Israel for the war in Gaza.
Lawyers say that Germany is an easier target for a suit than is the United States. Germany has granted full jurisdiction to the International Court of Justice. But the United States denies its jurisdiction, except in cases where Washington explicitly gives its consent.
Nicaragua’s case is the third before the court this year that deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Some analysts have suggested that the German government’s stance has hardened since Nicaragua notified Germany on Feb. 2 of its intended court filings. There is also increasing concern that the global outrage is so strong that the perception of unconditional support from Germany was damaging important international relationships.
The foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, recently noted that Germany is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions and said it would send a delegation to Israel as a reminder of the duty to abide by international humanitarian law.
Israel, which is not a party to the dispute between Nicaragua and Germany, will not appear before the court in the hearings, which are expected to end on Tuesday.
Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting.
