Latest news with #The Hague Group
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Is the international community finally speaking up about Israel?
International public opinion continues to turn against Israel for its war on Gaza, with more governments slowly beginning to reflect those voices and increase their own condemnation of the country. In the last few weeks, Israeli government ministers have been sanctioned by several Western countries, with the United Kingdom, France and Canada issuing a joint statement condemning the 'intolerable' level of 'human suffering' in Gaza. Earlier this week, a number of countries from the Global South, 'The Hague Group', collectively agreed on a number of measures that they say will 'restrain Israel's assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories'. Across the world, and in increasing numbers, the public, politicians and, following an Israeli strike on a Catholic church in Gaza, religious leaders are speaking out against Israel's killings in Gaza. So, are world powers getting any closer to putting enough pressure on Israel for it to stop? Here's what we know. According to its website, the Hague Group is a global bloc of states committed to 'coordinated legal and diplomatic measures' in defence of international law and solidarity with the people of Palestine. Made up of eight nations; South Africa, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia and Senegal, the group has set itself the mission of upholding international law, and safeguarding the principles set out in the Charter of the United Nations, principally 'the responsibility of all nations to uphold the inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, that it enshrines for all peoples'. Earlier this week, the Hague Group hosted a meeting of some 30 nations, including China, Spain and Qatar, in the Colombian capital of Bogota. Also attending the meeting was UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who characterised the meeting as 'the most significant political development in the past 20 months'. Albanese was recently sanctioned by the United States for her criticism of its ally, Israel. At the end of the two-day meeting, 12 of the countries in attendance agreed to six measures to limit Israel's actions in Gaza. Included in those measures were blocks on supplying arms to Israel, a ban on ships transporting weapons and a review of public contracts for any possible links to companies benefiting from Israel's occupation of Palestine. More and more. On Wednesday, Slovenia barred far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering its territory after the wider European Union failed to agree on measures to address charges of widespread human rights abuses against Israel. Slovenia's ban on the two government ministers builds upon earlier sanctions imposed upon Smotrich and Ben-Gvir in June by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and Norway over their 'incitement to violence'. The two men have been among the most vocal Israeli ministers in rejecting any compromise in negotiations with Palestinians, and pushing for the Jewish settlement of Gaza, as well as the increased building of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. In May, the UK, France, and Canada issued a joint statement describing Israel's escalation of its campaign against Gaza as 'wholly disproportionate' and promising 'concrete actions' against Israel if it did not halt its offensive. Later that month, the UK followed through on its warning, announcing sanctions on a handful of settler organisations and announcing a 'pause' in free trade negotiations with Israel. Also in May, Turkiye announced that it would block all trade with Israel until the humanitarian situation in Gaza was resolved. South Africa first launched a case for genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice in late December 2023, and has since been supported by other countries, including Colombia, Chile, Spain, Ireland, and Turkiye. In January of 2024, the ICJ issued its provisional ruling, finding what it termed a 'plausible' case for genocide and instructing Israel to undertake emergency measures, including the provision of the aid that its government has effectively blocked since March of this year. Israel's bombing on Thursday of the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, killing three people, drew a rare rebuke from Israel's most stalwart ally, the United States. Following what was reported to be an 'angry' phone call from US President Trump after the bombing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement expressing its 'deep regret' over the attack. To date, Israel has killed more than 58,000 people in Gaza, the majority women and children. Mass public protests against Israel's war on Gaza have continued around the world throughout its duration. And there are clear signs of growing anger over the brutality of the war and the toll it is taking on Palestinians in Gaza. In Western Europe, a survey carried out by the polling company YouGov in June found that net favourability towards Israel had reached its lowest ebb since tracking began. A similar poll produced by CNN this week found similar results among the American public, with only 23 percent of respondents agreeing Israel's actions in Gaza were fully justified, down from 50 percent in October 2023. Public anger has also found voice at high-profile public events, including music festivals such as Germany's Fusion Festival, Poland's Open'er Festival and the UK's Glastonbury festival, where both artists and their supporters used their platforms to denounce the war on Gaza. Protests against the war remain small but are growing, with organisations, such as Standing Together, bringing together Israeli and Palestinian activists to protest the war. There has also been a growing number of reservists refusing to show up for duty. In April, the Israeli magazine +972 reported that more than 100,000 reservists had refused to show up for duty, with open letters from within the military protesting the war growing in number since. Netanyahu's hard-right coalition has been pursuing its war on Gaza despite its domestic and international unpopularity for some time. The government's most recent proposal, that all of Gaza's population be confined into what it calls a 'humanitarian city', but has been likened to a concentration camp and has been taken by many of its critics as evidence that it no longer cares about either international law or global opinion. Internationally, despite its recent criticism of Israel for its bombing of Gaza's one Catholic church, US support for Israel remains resolute. For many in Israel, the continued support of the US, and President Donald Trump in particular, remains the one diplomatic absolute they can rely upon to weather whatever diplomatic storms their actions in Gaza may provoke. In addition to that support, which includes diplomatic guarantees through the use of the US veto in the United Nations Security Council and military support via its extensive arsenal, is the US use of sanctions against Israel's critics, such as the International Criminal Court, whose members were sanctioned in June after it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on war crimes charges. That means, in the short term, Israel ultimately feels protected as long as it has US support. But as it becomes more of an international pariah, economic and diplomatic isolation may become more difficult to handle.
Arab News
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
How Israel lost its best friend in Latin America
Colombia and South Africa will convene an emergency conference on Gaza in Bogota on Tuesday calling on ministers from states across the world to deliberate a multilateral defense of international law, focusing on Israeli atrocities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The two countries co-chair The Hague Group of 10 nations from the Global South formed in January to protect and uphold rulings on the Israeli Palestinan conflict by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. The aim of the conference is to urgently develop 'concrete legal, diplomatic and economic measures that can halt Israel's destruction – and uphold the foundational principle that no state is above the law.' All countries are invited. For the past several years, Colombia has led a fundamental change in Latin America to turn the tide against Israel there, a change that has accelerated since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023. This change is remarkable, considering that Colombia had been historically a close partner of Israel. Until 2018, it was one of the few remaining governments in Latin America that did not recognize Palestine as a state. Israel was Colombia's main partner in the Middle East and North Africa, while Colombia was Israel's second-largest trading partner in South America. For decades, Colombia's military had a close relationship with Israel's. It acquired numerous weapon systems and ammunition produced and/or maintained by Israel, including the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Spike missile, the Israel Weapons Industries-made 5.56mm Galil automatic rifle machinegun and .7.62mm Galil sniper rifle, Rafael Python-3 and Python-4 air-to-air missiles, and Israel Aerospace Industries Kfir fighter jets, and has signed up for the Barak MX air defense system. It all began to change with Colombia's recognition of the state of Palestine in 2018. Although that drew a strong diplomatic reaction from Israel, their partnership survived. In October 2023, however, Colombia condemned Israel's conduct in Gaza and recalled its ambassador. President Gustavo Petro compared the Israeli military to Nazis. Later that month, Israel halted all security exports to Colombia. In April 2024, Colombia joined 24 other states and international organizations in becoming a party to South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice alleging genocide in the Gaza Strip, in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The longer Israel continues its onslaught on Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, the more Latin and South American nations are breaking their historical ties with Tel Aviv Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg Then, in April this year, Colombia said it would buy up to 24 fighter jets from Swedish company Saab to replace the ageing Israel-made Kfir, whose maintenance has become complicated after Israel and Colombia broke diplomatic ties and stopped military cooperation. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war crimes in Gaza have lost Israel a close ally and the breakup is now near complete. Petro published an opinion article in The Guardian last week on why Colombia had decided to break ties with Israel, in which he said his country had a 'duty to stand up to Israel.' Without such decisive action, the president said, the world risked 'stripping the global legal order of its remaining protections.' For more than 600 days, Netanyahu had led 'a campaign of devastation in Gaza, the escalation of regional conflict, and a reckless abandonment of international law at large,' Petro said. The UN has declared Gaza the 'hungriest place on Earth,' and said its mission to send aid was 'one of the most obstructed … in recent history.' The Hague emergency conference next week is an effort to bring about collective action to counter Israel's accelerated steps to isolate and starve Palestinians in Gaza into submission and kill as many of them as possible to push the rest to leave. Last September, Colombia voted with the majority at the UN to censure Israel and set a deadline of 12 months for it to 'bring to an end without delay its unlawful presence' in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Bogota then began a series of concrete actions to implement the UN resolution, by conducting investigations and prosecutions regarding Israel-connected activities in the country: it applied sanctions and asset freezes against Israeli interests, stopped imports from Israel, especially arms, and stopped coal exports to Israel. Petro said that without such decisive action, 'we risk turning the multilateral system into a talking shop, stripping the legal order of its remaining protections for small, developing and less privileged nations – from west Asia to right here in Latin America,' who rely on the protections provided by international law and multilateral organizations. Colombia has stepped up to the challenge and Petro did not mince words. 'The choice before us is stark and unforgiving. We can either stand firm in defense of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics,' he said. Colombia's brave stand is in sharp contrast with many states that have failed to implement this UN resolution, or other similar international sanctions, allowing economic or other calculations to override their moral duties. For some states, fear of reprisals from Israel and its ally the US has played a key role in that failure. Colombia's position marks a seismic shift among Latin American countries, which in the past supported Israel. They played a decisive role in supporting the 1947 UN partition plan that led to the establishment of Israel, with 13 of them voting in favor. Streets in Jerusalem, such as Guatemala Street, Brazil Street, Costa Rica Street and Mexico Street, are named after these countries in recognition of that role. But the Gaza war is changing that. Now most counties in South and Latin America vote at the UN with the majority of nations in support of Palestinian rights, and recognize the state of Palestine. In addition to Colombia, Chile has also joined South Africa's genocide case. Brazil, Colombia, Chile and others have recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv and strongly condemned Israeli actions. In 2023, Belize and Bolivia severed diplomatic relations with Israel. However, Israel still has friends there, such as Argentina under the current rightist government, Guatemala, Panama and several others. The longer Israel continues its onslaught on Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the more it blatantly breaks international law and rejects initiatives to deescalate, the more Latin and South American nations are breaking their historical ties with Tel Aviv, despite the heavy price they may have to pay. Colombia is a perfect example of a friend-turned-foe as a result of Israeli intransigence. * Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation. The views expressed here are personal and do not necessarily represent those of the GCC. X: @abuhamad1
