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Destruction in the Gaza Strip: Did Germany aid and abet the genocide?

Photo: Mohammed Talatene / dpa

A German delegation has to answer for aiding and abetting genocide before the International Court of Justice in The Hague: Nicaragua accuses Germany of violating the Genocide Convention. The federal government is enabling a genocide against the Palestinians through its political, financial and military support for Israel. The hearings are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

With the urgent decision, Nicaragua wants to ensure that Germany immediately stops arms exports to Israel and resumes payments to the Palestinian relief organization UNRWA. After the USA, Germany is one of Israel's largest arms suppliers. However, the USA only ratified the Genocide Convention with reservations.

Weapons deliveries from the USA and Germany

Since the Hamas attack on October 7, in which around 1,140 people died and more than 250 hostages were taken, Israel has been waging war against the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. Israel's conduct of the war is increasingly being criticized internationally. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began - including more than 20,000 women and children. The information comes from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, but is internationally considered credible.

After the attack on Israel, Chancellor Olaf Scholz repeatedly reiterated that Israel's security was part of Germany's reasons of state. Last year, the federal government gave the green light for arms exports worth 326.5 million euros to Israel - ten times as much as in 2022. This included war weapons worth 20.1 million euros, including 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons and 500,000 rounds of ammunition for machine guns, Submachine guns or other fully or semi-automatic firearms. Most of it was approved after October 7, 2023.

Although the federal government now has considerable doubts about the proportionality of Israel's military offensive in Gaza, it does not want to rule out continuing to supply armaments to Israel. This recently emerged from the Foreign Office's response to a small question from Bundestag member Sevim Dağdelen from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance.

On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council issued a resolution demanding that all arms deliveries to Israel be stopped because of the "possible risk of genocide in the Gaza Strip." An export ban had previously been requested by the International Court of Justice. As a prominent former supporter of Israel, Canada has already stopped supplying weapons, and the USA and France have recently sharpened their criticism of Israel's actions.

muk/Reuters/dpa