Hague Group: “Concrete Measures” or Sack of Cement? Will It Move to Sanctions, Peace Force and Ensuring Aid to Gaza?

Will the meeting in Colombia be a coalescence of global opinion driving states to just action — or just more rhetoric from various officials that doesn't result in needed action? Answers at bottom...

Ramy Abdu: “Successive Israeli carpet bombings strike Beit Hanoun. Relentless, high-intensity bombardment is targeting civilian areas without pause.”

Middle East Eye is now reporting that this coming week “Spain and Ireland to join more than 20 states to declare ‘concrete measures’ against Israel.” The “emergency summit” is due to be “held on 15-16 July, co-hosted by the governments of Colombia and South Africa as co-chairs of The Hague Group, to coordinate diplomatic and legal action to counter what they describe as ‘a climate of impunity’ enabled by Israel and its powerful allies.”

But the piece doesn’t really outline what those “concrete measures” might be. Moreover, many of these states are reportedly continuing to have economic relations with Israel, see below.

The conference will afford heads of state and other officials — most prominently UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who also has a perch at Georgetown — a well-timed stage given that she was recently “sanctioned” by Rubio. He could hardly have done her a bigger favor. The question that should be centered is: ”Where are the sanctions on Israel as it commits crimes against humanity daily?”

Many officials obviously have a habit of making pronouncements and not following through with the clear legal solutions and requirements. In 2023 (and in 2014), many states said Israel was committing genocide but none would invoke the required Genocide Convention until South Africa finally did so in late 2023 after thousands pushed for it. Indeed, incredibly, Albanese herself refused to call for a state to invoke the Genocide Convention until it was done.

And I have remarkably seen no clear reference from the Hague Group — or even its allied group Progressive International — pursuing Uniting for Peace resolutions at the UNGA which would demand sanctions on imperial Israel or provide a peace force to protect the Palestinians in Gaza it is slaughtering daily. Here's a piece that outlines how we can build on the 1981 (South Africa) and 1956 (Gaza/Sinai) precedents of decisive UNGA action.

Of course many governments don’t want to stop Israel’s slaughter. At all. Not just the US and European states like Germany and Britain, but for example self-hating Palestinian-American “Christian” Zionist Nayib Bukele of El Salvador or phony “libertarian” Javier Milei of Argentina.

But there is evidence of a global consensus for peace — but is it just rhetorical among governments? They continue to actually act with little sense of urgency as Palestinians are slaughtered daily. It's been almost a year since the UNGA resolution of Sept. 18, 2024 passed, giving Israel a year to end its occupation. And, as Colombian President Gustavo Petro now rightly notes: “Governments such as mine cannot afford to remain passive. In September 2024, when we voted for the United Nations general assembly resolution on Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, we assumed concrete obligations – investigations, prosecutions, sanctions, asset freezes, and cessation of imports and arms. That resolution set a deadline of 12 months for Israel to ‘bring to an end without delay its unlawful presence’. One hundred and twenty-four states voted in favour, including Colombia. The clock is now ticking.”

Something that has gotten remarkably little coverage is that last month, newspaper El Pais reported that former Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva had attempted to meet with Rubio to propose removing Petro from office. History tells us that any leader who really sticks their neck out against the US empire may well face the worst sort of reprisal.

That UNGA resolution that Petro cites should be used to the max, but it’s clearly limited, weaker than the 1981 UNGA resolution against apartheid South Africa which made strong demands — demanding maximal sanctions — and even called out the failure of the US-dominated Security Council to maintain peace and security. And Petro makes no mention of a peace force, even though, interestingly, it was a force largely from Colombia (as well as Pakistan and Norway) that resolved the 1956 crisis after Israel invaded Sinai and Gaza the first time. Nor does he raise the possibility of government-backed flotilla efforts — why exactly should it be left to activists like the Freedom Flotilla to confront imperial Israel on the high seas?

In May, the South African president met with Trump who lectured him on the “white genocide” in South Africa without mentioning Israel’s actual genocide. Worse than that, after the meeting with Trump, Ramaphosa said he complimented Trump on his "peace building in the Middle East ... We said we compliment you on the efforts you're making."

Patrick Bond, who warns of “BRICS sub-imperialism” reports that with coal supplies to Israel, some reports indicate “South Africa appears to take #1 position in 2025 with 765,000 tonnes” but “BUT other sources (Kpler.com) have Colombia as #1 supplier in 2025.” Bond has other very notable observations about The Hague Group, below.

Still, Progressive International reported last year under the headline “Colombia’s Coal Embargo on Israel Is a Model to Follow” that Petro just “announced that his country will suspend coal exports to Israel until the genocide stops.”

The group hyped: “Colombia’s announcement represents only the start of a global campaign to end the genocide and bring justice to the Palestinian people after over seven decades of colonial and apartheid rule by Israel.” See from El Turbión: “The Coal Embargo on Israel That Never Was“.

In addition to the chairs, Colombia and South Africa, the founding members of The Hague Group include Senegal, Namibia, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras and Malaysia.

Additional states due to take part in the summit reportedly include Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Ireland, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Oman, Portugal, Spain, Qatar, Türkiye, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Palestine.

Algeria has offered much rhetoric as the only Arabic member of the UNSC, but it notably failed to push for a UNSC resolution implementing ICJ orders in the Spring of 2024 and actually voted for a phony US resolution. This helped Israel to continue its genocide. Early this year, Israeli i24 News reported that Algeria ranks fourth among Arab countries exporting goods to Israel. Morocco World News reported early this year that while imports to Algeria from Israel have plummeted, one report found “During the last 5 years the exports of Algeria to Israel have increased at an annualized rate of 64.1 percent.” (Added: Of course Israeli and Moroccan media may have ulterior motives here.)

And Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has described Israel's ongoing military offensive in Gaza as "the greatest genocide this century has witnessed." He also formally requested the European Union to suspend its association agreement with Israel. Spain just cancelled an arms deal with Israel but continues millions of dollars in trade.

Ramy Abdu: “After 21 months of refusing to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel, the EU now claims to be pressuring Israel for a “better management” of the genocide in Gaza — using increased humanitarian aid as a means to whitewash Europe’s role.”

Kathy Kelly — president of World Beyond War — notes that: “Ireland was the largest buyer of Israeli integrated circuits in 2024, importing some $3bn billion worth of electronic integrated circuits and microassemblies. These components are widely used in Ireland’s pharmaceutical, medical device and tech manufacturing sectors. Political parties have called for greater clarity from the government regarding the use of Shannon Airport and whether it's being used to facilitate the supply of military equipment to Israel, particularly in the context of the conflict in Gaza.”

World Beyond War has a petition which urges using the UN for collective action — sanctions and a peace force.

Turkish Minute reports that Türkiye “exported nearly $394 million worth of goods to Israel in the first five months of 2025, despite the government’s announcement last year of a full suspension of bilateral trade, according to data from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.”

Robert Jereski, a lawyer with the CODEPINK World Court Project, who has organized and participated in countless meetings with various UN missions, organized a protest last year in front of the Turkish mission to the UN, see: “Erdogan’s ‘Crocodile Tears’ Will not Protect Palestinians from Israel’s Genocide”. Türkiye cut off relations with Israel two days later. But trade is booming.

In Bangladesh, importation of goods originating from Israel is banned, as is the shipment of goods on Israeli flag vessels, according to the Bangladesh Trade Portal. But in early 2023, reports emerged of the government buying spying technology from Israel.

Brazil is a significant trading partner for Israel in the Middle East. In 2024, bilateral trade reached $1.9 billion. The Brazilian government reports: “Israel was the first country outside Latin America to establish a free trade agreement with Mercosur. The agreement was signed in Montevideo in December 2007 and came into effect in Brazil in April 2010.”

In May 2025, China exported $1.45B and imported $1.7B from Israel, resulting in a negative trade balance of $248M. Between May 2024 and May 2025 the exports of China to Israel increased by $146M (11.2%) from $1.3B to $1.45B, while imports increased by $1.06B (167%) from $636M to $1.7B.

If powerful countries like Brazil and China continue to insist on massive trade with a genocidal state, it seems to me the very least they could do is ensure that food gets into Gaza.

Chinese-owned TikTok hyped accounts and allied journalists pretended that this happened when it didn’t:

All countries should be pushed. If country X does good action Y, that should be used to get others to do so. Then, country X should be urged to do good action Y+1.

There may be an element of a union-organizing effort to this. The US Empire will go after anyone who actually commits an act of conscience, or even seems to. And it has a host of willing scabs.

Chile: In May 2025, Israel exported $14.7 million and imported $7.81 million from Chile, resulting in a positive trade balance of $6.91M. On June 3, 2025, Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced his intention to submit a bill banning the importation of goods produced in Israeli settlements located in Palestinian territories, which are widely considered illegal under international law.

Again, it’s important to stress that the 1981 UNGA resolution on apartheid South Africa targeted South Africa as a whole. This is an obvious model.

Djibouti, an Arab League member, has so far refused to establish ties with Israel. It joined four countries in a 2023 referral to the International Criminal Court on the "Situation in the State of Palestine." But it still trades with it. Israel Imports from Djibouti was US $183,000 during 2024, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Israel exports to Djibouti were US $7.23 million during 2022, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

Israel imports from Honduras were US $2.26 million during 2024, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Honduras Exports to Israel was US $3.74 million during 2023. It maintains diplomatic relations with Israel.

Israel Exports to Indonesia were US $49.56 million during 2024, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Israel Exports to Indonesia - data, historical chart and statistics - was last updated on July of 2025. Indonesia's imports from Israel for January-April 2025 were $13.2 million, according to Asia Pacific Solidarity Network. See: “Iran wants Indonesia to boycott Israeli goods as war rages on.” Recent report: “Indonesia is willing to establish diplomatic relations with Israel if and when an independent Palestinian state is recognized by Tel Aviv, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said yesterday.”

Patrick Bond — while expressing admiration for Progressive International — emailed me his concerns about The Hague Group back in February. I honestly didn’t take too close a look at them until recently since my concussion symptoms were worse then:

People should put pressure on their governments to join, if they have reasonable positions when it comes to Palestine (e.g. Ireland, Norway and Spain, and many other poorer - and Islamic - countries' governments that oppose Israeli genocide at the ICJ such as Türkiye, Libya and Mexico.)

However, do you also worry:

• the ICJ and ICC have long been toys of Western imperialism (until the Israel genocide case begun in 2024), and the new ICJ president, Julia Sebutinde, is a hard-core Zionist (from Ugandan Evangelical-Christian circuits) who took Tel Aviv's side on every vote during last year's naming and shaming of the genocidaires (a month later, what would have possessed the other judges to name her ICJ vice-president?!);

• is this the proper priority, given that the ICJ and ICC are in any case paper tigers with no impact - the term 'Hague Shmague' is popular among the genocidaires, and many countries in Europe and North America are unwilling to respect the ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu, nor do any states respect the ICJ's implicit July 2024 call to impose trade sanctions on Israel;

• the Hague Group framing of Palestine support reifies international law, not activism and other vehicles for international solidarity and social justice, and is based on a vision of liberal justice which includes multinational corporate property rights, at a time the very concept of Western-dominated multilateral (pro-corporate) power deserves profound questioning and decolonisation;

• among the parties to the Hague Group is the Palestine Authority, which in liberation movement circles is generally considered a Quisling 'cousin of Israeli security' for doing its dirty work, especially in recent days in Jenin, and over the long term in conjunction with Israeli repression all over the West Bank (and earlier, in Gaza too), so much so that Netanyahu said in 2023, "Where it’s successfully operating, it does our job for us";

• among the state parties signing up to the Hague Group are NOT the other supposedly pro-'multipolar' governments, e.g. 17 out of the 21 BRICS members or partners, because only South Africa as a member plus Malaysia, Bolivia and Cuba as partners are in the Hague Group, what with many others — including Russia and the UAE — not only major trading and investment partners with Israeli firms, but acting as examplars of BRICS regimes' shameless violations of international law (in wars stretching from Ukraine to Sudan), suggesting that this effort will never achieve critical mass given the repressive character of so many of these anti-Western regimes who want to avoid liberal Hague-style forms of justice;

• most of these nine countries have done virtually nothing to halt trade with Israel, and their firms' profiteering includes increased levels of South African and Colombian coal supplying the genocide and apartheid energy grid, and a variety of other exports/imports from Hague Group members; and

• symbolically, the damn name chosen codifies a city which was at the political core of Dutch slaving, settler colonialism and centuries of oppression.

My own view is that UN and other institutions should be used to their maximum capacity. That’s why I pushed for the ICJ Genocide Convention case and why I’m pushing for the UNGA facilitating sanctions and a peace force. But nations, UN officials and institutions shouldn’t be fetishized at all — especially if they are hyped on big tech platforms — and shouldn’t be held up as saviors, effectively keeping people on a plantation rather than escalating independent action. Institutions and nation states should be used by people of conscience, not the other way around. Meaningful movements must be independent, fostering open global dialogue and action — not entities trying to cozy up to various states.