ICJ rules against halting German arms exports to Israel
The World Court has ruled against issuing emergency measures over German arms sales to Israel. “The circumstances are not such as to require the exercise of its power under Article 41 of the statute to indicate provisional measures,” presiding Judge Nawaf Salam said.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague made its ruling on Nicaragua’s request that emergency measures be imposed on Germany over its support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
Nicaragua argued during two days of hearings earlier this month that Germany violated the 1948 Genocide Convention and international law by supplying Israel with arms, accusing Berlin of being well aware there was a risk of genocide.
Germany denied the accusations, and its lawyer argued that Nicaragua’s case was rushed, based on flimsy evidence and should be thrown out for lack of jurisdiction.
Germany is one of Israel’s biggest military suppliers, sending it $353.7m in equipment and weapons in 2023.
Germany argued that vast majority of transfers to Israel were ‘non-military’
Germany’s argument was that 98 percent of their military transfers to Israel after October 7 were non-military in nature, that three out of four of their export licences related to non-lethal material, and the justices looking at those facts as presented by the German legal team have accepted them.
The other crucial argument that has wider implications is that they are not found to be in violation of the Genocide Convention because Israel itself … have not been found to be in violation of the genocide convention and that will be key to other countries that may face similar cases relating to their arms transfers to Israel.
ICJ ‘deeply concerned’ with situation in Gaza
The ICJ says in its ruling that it remains “deeply concerned about the catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in particular in view of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities to which they have been subjected”.
“The Court recalls that pursuant to Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, all States parties are under an obligation ‘to respect and to ensure respect’ for the Conventions ‘in all circumstances’.
“It follows from that provision that every State party to these Conventions, ‘whether or not it is a party to a specific conflict, is under an obligation to ensure that the requirements of the instruments in question are complied with’.”
ICJ reminded parties of obligation under Geneva Convention
Moataz El Fegiery, head of the human rights programme at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says the International Court of Justice (ICJ) reminded the international community of its obligation under the Geneva Convention.
“It’s not the end of the story. There is a legal battle that will continue and many other issues that the court will deal with, with regards to jurisdiction to examine the case or the merit,” El Fegiery told Al Jazeera.
“There is also South Africa versus Israel, and actually Nicaragua intervened in this case as well … of course we hoped that today there would be some measures because this would be an important legal message to many other countries that are right now supporting Israel with weapons and arms.
“But I think even if the court today dismissed the measures, there is also some kind of political message in the whole process.”
How about the obligation to the UNSC ceasefire resolution...
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