Representatives of nine Global South countries convened in the Hague last Friday to launch a coalition that will apply collective pressure on Israel over its gross violations of international law.

The founding members of the Hague Group include the governments of Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa. Their initiative aims to establish a common platform to enforce “coordinated legal and diplomatic measures,” including sanctions, in retaliation for the Israeli state’s fifteen-month-long invasion of Gaza, its decades-old occupation of the West Bank, and its blocking of the creation of a Palestinian state.

“This is a group for collective action. Collective action at the national level, collective action at the international level, and collective action at the multilateral level,” said Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla of the Progressive International, which helped organize the coalition, at the January 31 launch event. “The Hague Group aims to build a bulwark to defend international law.”