Namibia slams former colonial ruler Germany for supporting Israel in ICJ genocide case

The Namibian presidency has condemned Germany’s “shocking decision” to reject the genocide case at the UN’s top court, accusing the former colonial ruler of not learning lessons of its ‘horrific history’ in the African country in the early 20th centry, and calling South Africa’s accusation at The Hague as ‘morally upright’.
Namibia’s President Hage Geingob has urged Germany to “reconsider its untimely decision to intervene as a third-party in defense” in response to Berlin’s rejection of the South Africa’s filed case at the the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. “Germany has chosen to defend in the ICJ the genocidal and gruesome acts of the Israeli government against innocent civilians in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian Territories,” Namibia’s president said in a statement on X on Saturday (13 January). According to President Geingob, its former colonial master could not “morally express commitment to the United Nations Convention against genocide, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia” and at the same time support Israel.
In 2021, Berlin acknowledged committing genocide in Namibia between 1904 and 1908 when German colonizers massacred more than 70,000 Herero and Nama indigenous people. Historians consider this to be the first genocide of the 20th century. “The German Government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil,” Geingob added. Berlin on Friday (12 January) said the accusation of genocide against Israel was completely unfounded and amounted to a “political instrumentalization” of the UN genocide convention. “In view of Germany’s history and the crime against humanity of the Holocaust, the government sees itself as particularly committed to the genocide convention,” it said.