During its genocidal campaign in Gaza, Israel has repeatedly flouted the rulings of international courts. While Western states indulge Israeli impunity, a coalition of states backed by left-wing parties is spearheading action to hold Israel to account.
by Harrison Stetler
Part 1
Representatives of nine Global South countries convened in the Hague last Friday to launch a coalition that will apply collective pressure on Israel over its gross violations of international law.
The founding members of the Hague Group include the governments of Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa. Their initiative aims to establish a common platform to enforce “coordinated legal and diplomatic measures,” including sanctions, in retaliation for the Israeli state’s fifteen-month-long invasion of Gaza, its decades-old occupation of the West Bank, and its blocking of the creation of a Palestinian state.
The founding members of the Hague Group include the governments of Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa. Their initiative aims to establish a common platform to enforce “coordinated legal and diplomatic measures,” including sanctions, in retaliation for the Israeli state’s fifteen-month-long invasion of Gaza, its decades-old occupation of the West Bank, and its blocking of the creation of a Palestinian state.
“This is a group for collective action. Collective action at the national level, collective action at the international level, and collective action at the multilateral level,” said Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla of the Progressive International, which helped organize the coalition, at the January 31 launch event. “The Hague Group aims to build a bulwark to defend international law.”
The group hopes that other states could be willing to join their initiative, which seeks to defend and act upon the rulings against Israel and its political authorities by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). They expect to make inroads among the vast majority of Global South nations that voted in favor of the United Nations General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank and its latest war in Gaza. Figures from left-wing parties in Europe, such as France Insoumise, Ireland’s Sinn Féin, and the Workers’ Party of Belgium, also attended the launch.
Two weeks into the January 19 cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, the immediate goal of the Hague Group is to uphold recent international court orders against the Israeli state, just as Western powers undermine that legal architecture in the hope of returning to the prewar status quo in Israel-Palestine. Their common declaration also urges the enforcement of economic sanctions against Israel, first through an embargo on military exports and the refusal of ships trafficking military hardware to Israel to use their ports. This could provide the basis for other forms of economic coercion, said figures familiar with the initiative, although one initial goal is the creation of a big-tent framework.
The founding states in the Hague Group are already among the leading actors on the international stage taking direct action against Israel. Last June, Colombia ordered an embargo on all coal exports to Israel—a business worth over $300 million in 2023. South Africa was likewise the lead plaintiff in the December 2023 case filed with the ICJ over the Israeli military’s conduct in the then two-month-old war. Many of the Hague Group members, such as Belize, Colombia, Honduras, and Bolivia, suspended diplomatic relations with Israeli leadership over the latest invasion of Gaza.
[2]
Related:
Comments
Post a Comment