Germany faces domestic lawsuit over its arms
sales to Israel
German human rights groups bring court action amid
rising dismay in country at deaths in Gaza
Patrick
Wintour Diplomatic editor
Fri 12 Apr
2024 11.00 BST
Germany
will face a fresh call to revoke all arms sales to Israel on Thursday in a
lawsuit that puts more pressure on Berlin amid a rising outcry about the scale
of deaths and destruction in the war on Gaza.
A lawsuit
in the German domestic courts will ask judges to urgently direct the government
to revoke all arms licences to Israel issued since 7 October, when Hamas
launched its attack on Israel.
Germany is
widely seen as the second largest arms exporter to Israel behind the US, and is
certainly a more significant provider of arms than the UK.
The lawsuit
has been issued by four human rights groups on behalf of five named
Palestinians who say they are in fear of their lives in Gaza, and are suffering
a form of collective punishment by Israel.
The legal
action is directed against the Green party-led federal ministry for economic
affairs and climate action, the department responsible for export licences
under the weapons of war control act.
“It is
reasonable to believe that the German government is in violation of the arms
trade treaty, the Geneva conventions and its obligations under the genocide
convention – agreements that have been ratified by Germany,” said a statement
from one of the lead litigants, the European Center for Constitutional and
Human Rights (ECCHR).
The
lawsuit, likely to be handled through written proceedings, would have the most
practical impact on the German sale of 3,000 anti-tank weapons.
The five
Palestinians include those who have lost relatives in the war, as well as their
homes and jobs and are considered internally displaced persons, states the
lawsuit.
“All five
of my children were killed when Israel fired on the refugee camp where we were
staying after fleeing from the north,” one of the plaintiffs said. “Germany
must stop sending weapons that fuel this war. No other mother should suffer
such a terrible loss.”
The ECCHR
general secretary, Wolfgang Kaleck, said that international law and human
rights were “fundamental” . “A basic prerequisite for a rules-based and human
rights-oriented German foreign policy is respect for the law in its own
decision making. Germany cannot remain true to its values if it exports weapons
to a war where serious violations of international humanitarian law are
apparent.”
The Green
foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has become increasingly critical of
Israel, describing Gaza as a hell, but for historical reasons Germany says
preservation of Israel’s security is at the heart of its foreign policy.
The case is
separate from that brought by Nicaragua, which this week pleaded in front of
the international court of justice in The Hague that Germany was in defiance of
the Geneva conventions by continuing to supply arms to Israel.
The German
government told the court that it had received Israeli assurances that it had
taken precautions and it currently had no reason to doubt this.
While
Germany exported defence equipment worth €203m (£174m) to Israel in October
2023, the volume in March amounted to only €1m, the government lawyers said.
At the same
time, the Global Legal Action Network has now been given a date of 23 April for
an oral hearing for its request for judicial review of the UK statement that
arms exports can continue on the basis of legal advice that Israel is not
acting unlawfully.
It is
expected UK ministers will set out further next week in parliament how the
legal advice shows Israel is not in breach of international humanitarian law, a
judgment that has been the subject of intenseargument. The government has
refused to publish the legal advice or a summary of it, but ministers are
expected to explain the policy position.
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