Alvin Botes, South Africa’s deputy minister of international relations, at the inaugural meeting of The Hague Group on Friday, 31 January 2025. Picture: DIRCO
By: Shakirah Thebus
Nine countries, including South Africa, gathered at the Hague to announce a global coordinated bloc to put an end to Israel’s violations of International law and to defend the Palestinian rights, particularly that of self-determination.
The nine countries gathered at the Hague for a historic meeting and to officially announce and inaugurate The Hague Group.
The Hague Group comprises South Africa, Namibia, Senegal, Honduras, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Belize, and Malaysia, with state representatives from each nation present for the momentous announcement.
The meeting took place at the Hague, where the Peace Palace, International Court of Justice (ICJ), and International Criminal Court (ICC) are situated and as such, earned it the title of City of Peace and Justice.
The meeting and press conference was convened by Progressive International, announced a “coordinated legal, economic, and diplomatic measures” to hold Israel accountable for violations of international law as well as over the genocide in Gaza.
Commencing the proceedings was London-based Palestinian journalist from Gaza, Ahmed Alnaouq.
Alnaouq said 21 members, including his father, five siblings and their children, and cousin, were killed during the beginning of the genocide, while sleeping in their family home in Deir al-Balah, south of the Gaza Strip.
“While they were sleeping in their home, an Israeli airplane came out of nowhere and it dropped a bomb on my family home, killing all my family members. On that day I lost my father, who was 75 years old, who was born during the Nakba. On the first day of his life, he lost his grandparents in 1948.”
Fourteen children under the age of 13 were also killed during the Israeli attack.
“They made no crime, they committed no mistake. Their only problem was, they were Palestinians and they were slaughtered. But this is not my story only. This is a story of thousands of Palestinian families who were wiped out during this genocide.”
He said the day was a historic one for all, not just Palestinians and that all those who participated in war crimes against Palestinians to be held accountable.
“Otherwise we are failing our people, we are failing the Palestinians and we are failing humanity.”
Representing South Africa was Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) Alvin Botes and Director-General of DIRCO, Zane Dangor.
Dangor read out the inaugural joint statement which expressed The Hague Group’s declarations and intentions.
This included that the nations would comply with the arrest warrants issued by the ICC for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, and implement the provisional measures of the ICJ issued on 26 January, 28 March, and 24 May 2024.
The nations also declared that it would prevent the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel “in all cases where there is a clear risk that the arms and related items might be used to commit or facilitate violations of international law, international human rights, or the prohibition on genocide”.
Finally, the nations declared that it would prevent the docking of vessels at any port, within their respective countries, in all cases where there is a clear risk of the vessel being used to carry military fuel and weaponry.
“We will take further effective measures to end Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine and remove obstacles to the realisation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine,” the statement read.
States not part of The Hague Group were invited to join or take actions and policies to end Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Botes said: “The international community should not condone impunity and exceptionalism. It cannot be that some countries are immune to accountability. We as the international community should reject attempts to manipulate international law to pursue accountability for some but evade accountability for others.”
“Enabling Israel to simply ignore decisions of the Courts and the United Nations with no consequence, is negatively impacting the integrity of the international legal order, including the organisations that are mandated to ensure accountability and ending impunity. This is unacceptable and we should not be complicit in Israel’s endeavours to irreparably harm the institutions that were established to build a more peaceful and just world.”
Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla said the group was for collective action at a national, international, and multilateral level.
“Because we live in an interconnected world and as we’ve seen clearly with Israel’s actions in Gaza, the mechanisms of injustice are found in the fabric of global supply chains… so by coordinating the commitments that many of these nations have already championed across our ports, across our factories, across our court, The Hague Group aims to build a bulwark to defend international law.”