LONDON: A group of countries has called on the international community to deny Israel “the tools of genocide.”
The Hague Group, an alliance of states dedicated to putting pressure on Israel, met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
They discussed ways to alleviate suffering in Gaza, and to prevent Israel from committing further violence in the enclave and the occupied West Bank.
Members called for a block on exports to the country, a ban on participation in international cultural events, and support for an aid flotilla currently approaching Gaza in the Mediterranean.
The group is co-chaired by Colombia and South Africa, whose government brought a case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza to the International Court of Justice in December 2023.
Last week, South Africa’s ICJ case was joined by Brazil, which said Israel has no right to claim that its actions in Gaza constitute self-defense as an occupying power.
Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told the group: “We must turn indignation into action, law into justice, and justice into peace.”
His government has also called for an international mission to be sent to Gaza, similar to the one established by the UN in 1962 to oversee the end of apartheid in South Africa.
“International law requires a state not only to refrain from genocide but also to prevent it. Failure to do so may give rise to state responsibility including complicity with genocide,” Vieira said.
“The time has come for states to fulfill their obligations under the Genocide Convention by adopting effective measures to ensure that they don’t, directly or indirectly, collaborate with its perpetrators.”
Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said it is essential that international corporations complicit in the occupation are identified. Chile, another member of the group, recently withdrew its ambassador to Israel.
Zane Dangor, director general of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said preventing genocide is a duty, despite the difficulty in proving it legally, in the aftermath of a UN report earlier this month that found reasonable grounds to conclude that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Riyad Mansour, Palestinian envoy to the UN, told The Guardian: “The Hague Group represented an inflection point in the struggle to secure accountability and to prevent Israel receiving arms and services. Much more needs to be done, and fast.”
