The Hague is negotiating complicity in genocide - and Berlin is sending a lawyer

Since Monday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has been hearing a lawsuit that could hardly have been imagined two years ago: Nicaragua accuses the Federal Republic of Germany of being complicit in aiding and abetting Israel's genocide in Gaza through arms exports and political backing. For four days, until Thursday, there will be arguments in The Hague - initially only about a formality: whether the lawsuit is even admissible. Germany's answer to this is remarkably simple. At the time of the lawsuit, there was no “dispute under international law” with Nicaragua, argued the head of the legal department at the Foreign Office, Julia Monar, on Monday. A procedural trick with which a federal government absolves itself of responsibility for the content before the matter is even discussed.

The facts behind it are uncomfortable enough to understand why Berlin prefers to talk about jurisdictional issues rather than content. The Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) pointed out on Monday that Germany has issued permits for the export of tank parts and armored vehicle parts to Israel worth 110 million euros in 2025 - components that the organization believes were used in Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon that violated international law. The German representative in court emphasized that no war weapons that could be used in Gaza had been delivered since 2024, and that exports had been approved again since the ceasefire in October 2025. That's not an exoneration, it's an admission: As soon as the political pressure eased, business continued.

You have to keep the chronology in mind to understand how much the German state is avoiding a substantive answer here. As early as 2024, the ICJ had rejected an urgent request from Nicaragua to immediately stop arms deliveries - at that point Germany was hardly delivering any more anyway. Now, in the main proceedings, the actual question is once again not at issue: whether the Federal Republic has violated the Genocide Convention with its arms exports. A decision on mere admissibility is not expected until early 2027 at the earliest. If the lawsuit goes through, the content will only be examined afterwards. The German narrative of reasons of state still has years to hide behind procedural questions while the deaths continue in Gaza.

This lawsuit doesn't come out of nowhere. It stands alongside South Africa's case against Israel itself, in which the ICJ has already stated several times that it is "plausible" that the rights of the Palestinian population not to become victims of genocide are at risk. Anyone who as a supplier in this context insists on procedural formalities instead of dealing with facts is behaving like any company that, when making an accusation, first relies on the statute of limitations and jurisdiction before talking about guilt. Except that this isn't about balance sheets, but about tens of thousands of deaths.

For us as an anti-fascist movement, the lesson is clear: the German state will not hold itself accountable. The only place where German co-responsibility is discussed publicly is a courtroom in The Hague, initiated by a state that is itself governed in a highly problematic manner and with which one should not associate - but the facts that it forces to light are nevertheless real and verifiable: tank parts, 110 million euros, an export ban that was lifted again just as the political pressure eased. Solidarity with Palestine also means not leaving this process to the internal politics of the ICJ admissibility question, but rather keeping the facts visible while Berlin plays for time.

Sources

taz.de: Germany considers Nicaragua's Gaza lawsuit to be inadmissible
Time: Germany defends arms exports to Israel in UN court
FAZ: Is Germany aiding and abetting the genocide in Gaza?
DW: Germany goes to UN court over arms exports to Israel