JTA — Germany, an early defender of Israel against allegations of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, has pulled support as it faces its own charges for aiding Israel.

Germany will no longer intervene on Israel’s behalf, a spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry told reporters on Wednesday. South Africa brought a genocide case against Israel in December 2023 at the highest court of the United Nations.

The U-turn comes after the German government rejected South Africa’s claims as “baseless” in January 2024, saying they amounted to “political instrumentalization” of the 1948 Genocide Convention, a treaty that outlined the crime under international law in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It said it would file an intervention on Israel’s behalf.

But when that deadline arrived this week, Germany was not among the countries weighing in. It said it could not wade in without compromising its own ICJ case, filed by Nicaragua later in 2024, that alleges that Germany violated international law by supporting Israel in the Gaza war.

“We are now ourselves part of a contentious case before the ICJ and have therefore decided not to make use of this option,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Josef Hinterseher.

The ICJ turned down Nicaragua’s request for emergency measures against Berlin but allowed Nicaragua’s case to........

© The Times of Israel