Colombia concludes Hague Group summit to find concrete actions to oppose Israeli war in Gaza
Summit accuses Israel of genocide, calls for collective international and economic pressure to end the conflict
Colombia this week hosted the first-ever “Emergency Ministerial summit of the Hague Group” in Bogotá. The conference, attended by 29 countries, seeks to coordinate concrete actions to halt Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, which member states describe as a “genocide”.
The group’s permanent members — made up of Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Senegal, South Africa, Malaysia, Namibia, and Colombia — were joined by representatives from Brazil, China, Turkey, Norway, Spain, Ireland, and others.
The group hopes to “create a unified international voice against Israel’s violations of international law,” stated the Hague group in a joint statement Tuesday, and “move beyond symbolic condemnations” to concrete resolutions to force an end to the conflict in Gaza that has killed at least 58,000 Palestinians since October 2023.
Among the ideas being considered are a strict embargo on Israeli manufactured armaments, an end to trade of resources that Israel needs for its defense industry, refusal of safe port to Israeli vessels and an end to fossil fuel exportations.
Colombia and South Africa are Israel’s main coal suppliers, which could change as a consequence of the summit.
The conference is attended by Special UN Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza Francesca Albanese, who has been sanctioned by the United States for advocating for Palestinian rights.
During the press conference, Albanese stressed that nations should immediately “review and suspend all ties with the state of Israel, military, strategic political, diplomatic, and economic, both imports and exports.” She further called for sanctions on Israel.
The group also demands that all U.N. member nations enforce an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a landmark ruling compelling UN Member States to cease all actions that contribute to “the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Those legal obligations of third-party states were overwhelmingly adopted on 18 September 2024, in the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/Es-10/24.
Subsequently, in November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for “crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
The United States does not recognize the ICC and has denounced its rulings. It also imposed sanctions on South Africa, which initiated ICJ proceedings against Israel before the international court.
The U.S. State Department has condemned the conference in Bogotá, saying the goal of attending countries is to “advance radical anti-Western agendas.” The US will “aggressively defend our interests, our military, and our allies, including Israel” from “coordinated legal and diplomatic warfare,” they continued in a statement.
South Africa and Colombia co-host the conference. Petro has long been a critic of Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip.
“Governments such as mine cannot afford to remain passive,” he said last week in an op-ed published by the Guardian. We can either stand firm in defence of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses.
The conference concludes today.
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