Netherlands to ICJ: Starvation, aid blocking key in proving Israel's genocidal intent in Gaza

The Netherlands said starvation and the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid may play an important role in determining genocidal intent, in a submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in South Africa’s case against Israel.

The submission, filed on March 12 as part of the ongoing genocide case, sets out the Netherlands’ interpretation of acts of genocide and how intent may be assessed under the Genocide Convention.

It said acts of genocide could include starvation and the withholding of humanitarian aid, particularly when carried out as part of a coordinated plan or consistent pattern of conduct.

The Netherlands also said forced displacement may correspond to underlying acts of genocide and serve as evidence of specific intent, particularly where it leads to serious bodily or mental harm or creates conditions of life calculated to bring about a group’s physical destruction.

Acts against children should be assessed differently, it said, arguing that a lower threshold should apply when evaluating harm due to their specific vulnerabilities.

The submission stressed that the prohibition of genocide is a peremptory norm of international law and that all states share a common interest in ensuring compliance with the Genocide Convention.

The Netherlands is among more than 20 countries to have submitted declarations of intervention in the case, though some, including the US, Hungary and Paraguay, have taken positions partially aligned with Israel.

Among a group of six Western countries that previously made similar arguments in a separate genocide case involving Myanmar, only the Netherlands intervened in the South Africa case, while France, the UK, Canada and Denmark did not.

Germany withdraws support for Israel

Meanwhile, Germany has withdrawn its support for Israel in its defence against the genocide charge before the ICJ, according to reports on Sunday.

“We are now ourselves a party to contentious proceedings before the ICJ and have consequently decided not to make use of this option [of intervening],” private broadcaster n-tv cited Josef Hinterseher, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, as saying.

The German government intends instead to focus on the legal proceedings initiated by Nicaragua, which filed a lawsuit against Germany before the ICJ in the spring of 2024, he added.

South Africa brought a genocide case against Israel in December 2023 at the highest court of the UN.

In January 2024, Berlin rejected South Africa’s claims as “baseless”, saying they amounted to “political instrumentalisation” of the 1948 Genocide Convention, a treaty that outlined the crime under international law in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Germany announced at that time it would file an intervention on Israel’s behalf.

In March 2024, Nicaragua filed a complaint with the court alleging that Germany was aiding and abetting genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza by supplying weapons to Israel.

“We firmly reject the allegations that Nicaragua has made against Germany before the ICJ,” the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.