Will Trump’s Support for Israel Provoke a Global South Rebellion?
A group nine nations are leading the charge in seeking to hold Israel to account for its genocidal war in Gaza.
Watching the news today, you’d be forgiven for wondering what exactly international law is – a near-mythic concept; it is mentioned only to be shouted down, if it’s recalled at all. People know it exists – we’ve read about it, we’ve just never witnessed it in real life. As tempting as it is to blame the new Trump administration for its destruction, American presidents have long laughed at the idea of international law. When asked in 2003 if his Iraq invasion and subsequent policy met the standards of international law, George W. Bush chuckled, “International law? I better call my lawyer; he didn’t bring that up to me.” Barack Obama, the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize, authorized 563 strikes, largely by drones, during his presidency across three countries, often killing civilians. And it was the Biden administration that threw away the scraps of what tiny symbolic respect remained for the concept of international protocols of war by arming, defending, and providing cover for Israel’s brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Karim Khan, the beleaguered prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has said ICC officials faced “threats” from supporters of Israel and Russia and that a senior figure had reminded him that the ICC was “built for Africa and for thugs like Putin,” not for Western countries and their friends.
So, it ought not to come as a surprise that the launch of a nine-state body to defend and uphold the values of international law had not a single country from the Global North among them. The Hague Group, convened by Progressive International, was launched earlier this year by Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa. At the group’s inauguration, chair Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla recalled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring, “Nobody will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else” after the International Court of Justice hearings on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. Ahmed Alnaouq, a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, presented the group’s opening testimony. It was important for it to be from an ordinary Palestinian, he told me, not an official, “the world has to hear from the victims.” An Israeli strike on his home in October 2023 killed 21 members of his sleeping family, including 14 children.
‘Taking a Real Risk’
The inaugural commitments of The Hague Group are three simple but vital measures: to uphold the ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant; to refuse harbor to vessels carrying jet fuel and weaponry to Israel; and to transfer no arms to Israel. The commitments echo a September 2024 UN resolution that called on Israel to end its occupation within a year, and for member states to cease arms transfers to Israel if the aid could be used against Palestinians.