{"id":1604020,"date":"2024-04-11T05:55:18","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T05:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=318651"},"modified":"2024-04-11T05:55:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T05:55:18","slug":"germany-gaza-and-the-world-court-broadening-the-scope-of-genocide-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/04\/11\/germany-gaza-and-the-world-court-broadening-the-scope-of-genocide-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany, Gaza and the World Court: Broadening the Scope of Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
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Photograph Source: Ostendfaxpost – CC BY 4.0<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Can it get any busier?\u00a0 The World Court, otherwise known as the International Court of Justice, has been swamped by applications on the subject of alleged genocide. The site of interest remains the Gaza Strip, the subject of unremitting slaughter since the October 7, 2023 cross-border attacks by Hamas against Israel.\u00a0 The retaliation by Israel has been of such brute savagery as to draw the attention of numerous states, including those not directly connected to the conflict.<\/p>\n

Given that genocide is a crime of universal jurisdiction abominated by international law, and given the broad application of the UN Genocide Convention intended to suppress and punish it, countries not normally associated with the tormented and blood-drenched relationship between Israel and the Palestinians have taken a keen interest.\u00a0 South Africa got matters moving with its December application last year seeking a judicial determination that Israel was committing genocidal acts in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

Since then, Pretoria has convinced the court to issue two interim orders, one on January 26, and another on March 28.\u00a0While the court has yet to decide the issue of whether Israel is culpable for genocide in waging in Gaza, the interim binding orders demand a lifting of restrictions on humanitarian aid, the prevention of starvation and famine, and observing the UN Genocide Convention.\u00a0 These all hint strongly at the unconscionable conduct on the part of the IDF against the civilian populace.<\/p>\n

The implications of such findings also go to Israel\u2019s allies and partners still keen to supply it with weapons, weapons parts, and support of a military industrial nature.\u00a0 Germany has been most prominent in this regard.\u00a0 In 2023 30% of Israel\u2019s military equipment<\/a> purchases totalling US$326 million came from Berlin.\u00a0 The Scholz government has also been a firm public supporter of Israel\u2019s offensive.\u00a0 \u201cThere is only one place for Germany at this time, and that is by Israel\u2019s side,\u201d proclaimed<\/a> German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to German lawmakers on October 12 last year.\u00a0 Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock curtly stated<\/a> that \u201cIt was not the job of politicians to tell the guns to shut up.<\/p>\n

Baerbock\u2019s remarks were all the more jarring given the 2006 views of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was then serving as Germany\u2019s foreign minister.\u00a0 With puffed up confidence, he claimed<\/a> then that Europeans and Germans had played a seminal role in ending the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon in \u201csilencing of the guns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cognisant of such a stance, Nicaragua is now taking the South African precedent further by alleging that Germany is complicit in a genocidal enterprise.\u00a0 While its own human rights record is coarse \u2013 the government of Daniel Ortega boasts a spotty record which involves, among other things, the killing of protesters<\/a> \u2013 Nicaragua has form at the ICJ.\u00a0 Four decades ago, it took the United States to the world court for assisting the counterrevolutionary Contras in their attempt to overthrow the Sandinista government.<\/p>\n

Its 43-page submission<\/a> to the court insists that Germany is responsible for \u201cserious violations of peremptory norms of international law taking place\u201d in Gaza in its failure to prevent genocide \u201cagainst the Palestinian people\u201d and \u201ccontributed\u201d to its commission by violating the Genocide Convention.\u00a0 It further alleges that Germany failed to comply with humanitarian law principles derived from the Geneva Conventions of 1949, its protocols of 1977 and \u201cintransgressible principles of international law\u201d in failing to \u201censure respect for these fundamental norms in all circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n

The application also compacts Israel\u2019s attack on Gaza with \u201ccontinued military occupation of Palestine\u201d, taking issue with Germany\u2019s alleged \u201crendering aid or assistance\u201d in maintaining that status quo in the Occupied Territories while \u201crendering aid or assistance and not preventing the illegal regime of apartheid and the negation of the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stretches of the Nicaraguan case would make troubling reading.\u00a0 It notes that \u201cby sending military equipment and now defunding UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] which provides essential support for the civilian population, Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide\u201d and had failed, in any case, \u201cin its obligation to do everything possible to prevent the commission of genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n

Such conduct was all the more egregious \u201cwith respect to Israel given that Germany has a self-proclaimed privileged relationship with it, which would enable it to usefully influence its conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

With these considerations in mind, the application by Nicaragua argues that Germany is obligated to \u201cimmediately\u201d halt its military support for Israel \u201cthat may be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes\u201d.\u00a0 Germany is further asked, not merely to \u201cend its assistance to Israel\u201d but \u201ccooperate to uphold international law and to bring the perpetrators of these atrocities to justice.”<\/p>\n

On April 8, the ICJ opened preliminary hearings.\u00a0 Alain Pellet, representing Nicaragua, argued<\/a> that \u201cGermany was and is fully conscious of the risk that the arms it has furnished and continues to furnish Israel\u201d could be used in the commission of genocidal acts.\u00a0 Another legal representative, Daniel Mueller, called<\/a> the provision of humanitarian airdrops to \u201cPalestinian children, women and men\u201d a \u201cpathetic excuse\u201d given the furnishing of \u201cmilitary equipment that is used to kill and annihilate them\u201d.\u00a0 Nicaragua\u2019s ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos Jos\u00e9 Arg\u00fcello G\u00f3mez, derided<\/a>Berlin\u2019s seeming inability \u201cto be able to differentiate between self-defence and genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berlin\u2019s defence follows on April 9.\u00a0 A sense of its bitter flavour can be gathered from one of its top legal briefs, Tania von Uslar-Gleichen.\u00a0 \u201cGermany completely rejects the accusations.\u00a0 We never did violate the Genocide Convention nor humanitarian law either directly or indirectly.\u201d\u00a0 Berlin was \u201ccommitted to the upholding of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n

If the defence fails to sway the judges, the case may well chart a line about third party responsibilities on preventing genocide in international humanitarian law.\u00a0 At this point, the momentum towards some clarity on the point seems inexorable.<\/p>\n

The post Germany, Gaza and the World Court: Broadening the Scope of Genocide<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can it get any busier?\u00a0 The World Court, otherwise known as the International Court of Justice, has been swamped by applications on the subject of alleged genocide. The site of interest remains the Gaza Strip, the subject of unremitting slaughter since the October 7, 2023 cross-border attacks by Hamas against Israel.\u00a0 The retaliation by Israel More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Germany, Gaza and the World Court: Broadening the Scope of Genocide<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1604020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1604021,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604020\/revisions\/1604021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1604020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1604020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1604020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}