Behind very sharp pleadings, Germany and Nicaragua had at least one thing in common during the hearings on April 8 and 9 before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Since 1er March, Managua accuses Berlin of complicity “plausible” in the crimes committed in Gaza by the Israeli army and asks the Court to order the suspension of its arms exports to Israel.
But before getting to the facts, on either side of the “great hall” From the courtroom, lawyers and diplomats claimed a particular link with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the war between Israel and Hamas. At the opening of the pleadings on April 8, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos Argüello, recalled that his country has “has been the subject of military interventions and attacks for most of its existence and has sympathy for the Palestinian people”. The diplomat and lawyer was referring in particular to the support of the United States for the Contras, an armed group fighting against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
“Our history is why Israel’s security has been at the heart of Germany’s foreign policy”declared for her part Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, chief lawyer of German diplomacy, responding to Nicaragua on April 9. “ Germany has learned from its past, she added, and that past includes responsibility for one of the most horrific crimes in human history, the Holocaust. This explains one of the principles on which our foreign policy with regard to all Middle East issues is based. »
Do not “confuse self-defense and genocide”
The day before, the Nicaraguan ambassador responded preemptively to this argument. “The Israeli state, and in particular its current government, must not be confused or assimilated with the Jewish people”, declared Carlos Argüello. If the diplomat said he understood that Germany supports “an appropriate response” after the attack of October 7, 2023 by Hamas in southern Israel, which left 1,170 dead and led to the capture of 250 hostages, “ he cannot confuse self-defense and genocide”he added.
“Germany is not legally responsible for the hell that has broken out in Gaza”added French lawyer Alain Pellet, pleading for Nicaragua, but “its failings made possible or facilitated serious violations of fundamental norms of international law” against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. “ No one owns the genocide brand, the lawyer said again, and no State, neither Israel nor Germany, can free itself from the fundamental rules of international law. »
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