Namibia criticizes German support for Israel in the International Court of Justice's genocide case

Namibia has condemned Germany, its former coloniser, for rejecting a case before a UN court accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Germany offered to intervene on behalf of Israel in the case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

President Hege Geingob urged Germany to “reconsider its inappropriate decision to intervene as a third party in defence.”

German colonists massacred more than 70,000 Herero and Nama people between 1904 and 1908. Historians consider this to be the first genocide of the twentieth century.

President Geingob said Germany could not “morally express its commitment to the UN Convention against Genocide, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia” and at the same time support Israel.

He added, “The German government has not yet fully atoned for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil.”

The German government said on Friday that the accusations of genocide against Israel are completely baseless and amount to “political exploitation” of the UN Convention on Genocide.

“Given Germany’s history and the crime against humanity of the Holocaust, the government sees itself as particularly committed to the Genocide Convention,” the statement said.

She said Hamas – which attacked Israel on October 7, leading to the current war – aimed to destroy Israel, which was acting in self-defense.

Hamas killed about 1,300 people, most of them civilians, and took about 240 others hostage on October 7.

Since then, Israel has killed nearly 24,000 people, most of them children and women, in its retaliatory attacks on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The United Nations and humanitarian organizations warned of the risk of famine in Gaza, as well as the spread of diseases among the displaced, and urged allowing more aid to enter the Strip.

The scale of the Israeli response prompted South Africa to ask the International Court of Justice to consider whether Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

The Pretoria case involved a series of alleged Israeli crimes, ranging from the indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians to the wholesale destruction of Gaza's infrastructure.

Israel has strongly rejected the allegations, calling them “baseless,” and its legal team has been highly critical of South Africa’s request, arguing that if anyone is guilty of genocide, it is Hamas.