Namibia Urges Ending Historic Injustice, Not Ignoring Gaza 'Carnage'

By Al Mayadeen English

Namibia's Justice Minister recalls Germany's brutality against her people and notes that it is because of this experience that they have a moral duty to stand up against the occupation in Palestine.

Namibia's Minister of Justice, Yvonne Dausab, accused Germany on Friday of committing the first genocide of the twentieth century.

Dausab delivered this address on Namibia's behalf during proceedings held by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, to evaluate the legal ramifications of "Israel's" policies and actions in occupied Palestine.

The ICJ is conducting hearings throughout the week to assess the legal consequences of the 75-year-long Israeli occupation, with the Court focusing specifically on the past 57 years of the occupation, beginning in 1967, with an unprecedented 52 nations, including the United States and Russia, expected to present evidence.

The Minister accused Germany of brutality against the Herero and Nama people and noted that Namibia knows well the repercussions of "occupation, colonialism, systematic discrimination, apartheid," citing that it is for this reason that the nation considers it a moral duty and a "sacred responsibility" to testify against the "indefensible occupation of Palestine."

'Hell on earth'

Dausab called on the court to end the injustice that has been suffocating the Palestinians for over 57 years, calling their situation “collective punishment" in the besieged Strip and the number of Palestinians murdered by "Israel" in Gaza "unprecedented in recent history."

This "hell on earth," noted Dausab, was a "stain on the collective conscience of the world."

During the session, Professor Phoebe Okowa, a professor of public international law at the University of London and Namibia's spokesperson, emphasized that racist Israeli tactics in Palestine violate core human rights treaties and international law principles.

Okowa requested the court to "make it clear that the prohibition of apartheid is not limited to Southern Africa in the last century," and rather includes "Israel's" current policy in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The International Court of Justice conducted its fifth day of hearings on the legal ramifications of "Israel's" activities in the occupied Palestinian territories at the request of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, with the proceedings set to conclude on Monday.

Namibia, Norway, the Sultanate of Oman, Pakistan, Indonesia, Qatar, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, and Tunisia all testified during the session on Friday.

In a continuous show of pro-Palestine solidarity, South Africa slammed "Israel's" apartheid in Palestine as worse than the one it experienced pre-1994, at the International Court of Justice on Tuesday. 

In a related context, Palestinians in Gaza have been pursuing a criminal case with a German court for months against senior German government officials who have supported "Israeli war crimes and genocide" against Palestinians.

Attorneys for Gaza victims announced in a press conference Friday in Berlin that a criminal complaint against the German government was being filed for "aiding and abetting genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza by supplying weapons to 'Israel' and issuing relevant export permits."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, and Economic Affairs Minister Robert Habeck have all been accused of "complicity in genocide in Gaza" for supporting the Israeli military offensive and allowing arms exports to "Israel" worth €326 million ($350 million).