<\/p>\nListen to this article<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0<\/span>7 mins<\/span><\/p>\n<\/button>info<\/title><path class=\"icon-main-color\" d=\"M12 0a12 12 0 1 0 0 24 12 12 0 0 0 0-24Zm-.226 3.225a2.039 2.039 0 0 1 2.155 1.924v.193a1.998 1.998 0 0 1-2.155 2.149 2.029 2.029 0 0 1-2.146-2.15 2.039 2.039 0 0 1 1.955-2.122h.193l-.002.006Zm3.227 15.525a.75.75 0 0 1-.752.75H9.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.75h.748V12h-.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.751h3a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.752v6.75h.75a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.749L15 18.75Z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p data-start=\"385\" data-end=\"1053\">In a post from its official X account yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs directed a message towards The Hague Group, a growing coalition of sovereign states \u2013 including South Africa, Colombia, and Malaysia \u2013 that were meeting in an emergency session in The Hague to discuss the enforcement of international law and accountability for actions in Gaza. The Israeli ministry <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/israelmfa\/status\/2029275567061647684?s=46\">posted<\/a> an image of 40 assembled nations alongside a photograph of thick black smoke rising from a targeted Iranian vessel, sunk earlier that same day. Part of the caption read: \u201cWe can expect the outcome of the Hague meeting to be as successful as Iran\u2019s navy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1055\" data-end=\"1336\">The post was published on an official government account and has not been retracted. It references an active military operation. When announcing the strikes, President Trump told the Iranian people that the government would be \u201cyours to take\u201d once the bombing was finished.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1338\" data-end=\"1593\">In that context, the juxtaposition of a sinking warship with an image of diplomats and experts is far more than an abstract provocation. A comparison is being made between military targets and the participants in a meeting to uphold international law.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1595\" data-end=\"1967\">The Hague Group represents a significant shift in Global South diplomacy. Established on January 31, 2025, it was founded by eight core nations: Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa, with the explicit mandate of coordinating state action to enforce the International Court of Justice (ICJ) provisional measures.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1969\" data-end=\"2381\">The coalition explicitly frames what it is doing as compliance with an existing international legal framework, not a departure from it. Israel, by contrast, has responded by comparing a diplomatic meeting to a military target. That choice of response is itself revealing. It reflects contempt for the process, for the participants, and for the premise that legal accountability applies equally to all states.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2383\" data-end=\"2753\">Far from being an isolated \u201cfringe\u201d group, as depicted by Israel in its post, by March 2026, The Hague Group\u2019s influence had expanded significantly, with 40 nations \u2013 including G20 members like Brazil and Saudi Arabia, alongside European states like Spain and Norway \u2013 convening to discuss concrete measures to ensure the enforcement of international law.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2755\" data-end=\"3657\">In the final statement from the March 4 emergency meeting, the 40 nations in attendance proposed a sweeping package of concrete measures to move \u201cfrom rhetoric to action\u201d. This included a total prohibition on the import of settlement goods and a halt to the transfer or transit of all arms, military fuel, and dual-use items to Israel. A significant new measure involved the implementation of disclosure requirements for travellers using Israeli documents. Individuals who have served in the Israeli military could now be subject to \u201csecondary screening at ports of entry\u201d under national war crimes inadmissibility rules. The group emphasised that these steps are required to fulfil \u201cthird-state obligations\u201d as determined by the July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion. They argued that states must actively prevent any assistance that maintains the illegal occupation.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3659\" data-end=\"3854\">The Israeli ministry\u2019s tweet dismissed the coalition as \u201ccorrupt regimes\u201d united by \u201chatred\u201d. But the legal standing of this group is bound up with a history that Israel cannot so easily dismiss.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3856\" data-end=\"4531\">During the height of the apartheid era in South Africa, when the world was beginning to isolate the white-minority government in Pretoria, Israel remained one of its most steadfast allies. This was a deep strategic partnership involving nuclear collaboration and advanced military technology. The very tools of state violence that maintained apartheid were often developed or refined in tandem with Israeli expertise. Evidence of this alliance includes the widely documented 1979 \u201cVela incident\u201d, believed to be a joint nuclear weapons test conducted by Israel and South Africa in the South Atlantic, a move that bypassed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"4533\" data-end=\"4838\">This history does not resolve the legal questions before the ICJ. But it does complicate Israel\u2019s framing of the current coalition. The nations now pressing for enforcement of international law are, in several cases, the same nations that spent decades on the receiving end of Israeli-backed impunity.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"4840\" data-end=\"5414\">The current moment adds another layer of historical irony. The February 28 strikes on Iran have given new prominence to Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, heir to the Pahlavi dynasty, who has thanked Donald Trump for \u201cstriking the monstrous regime\u201d in what he has referred to as a \u201chumanitarian intervention\u201d. In April 2023, on an official visit to Israel organised by the Israeli intelligence minister, Pahlavi spoke of rekindling \u201cthe ancient bond\u201d between the people of Israel and Iran and promoted the \u201cCyrus Accords\u201d to re-establish ties between them.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"5416\" data-end=\"5806\">Under his father\u2019s reign, Iran was one of apartheid South Africa\u2019s most important economic partners. By 1978, Iran supplied more than 90 percent of South Africa\u2019s crude oil imports, neutralising the Arab oil embargo that had been one of the international community\u2019s primary tools of pressure against Pretoria. The shah\u2019s father died in exile in Johannesburg in 1944.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"5808\" data-end=\"6140\">It is precisely this history \u2013 of legal frameworks selectively enforced and of international isolation applied to some states but not others \u2013 that The Hague Group is designed to address. The Hague Group\u2019s March 4 statement names what that history points towards: A choice facing states between complicity and compliance.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"6142\" data-end=\"6565\">The group warned that if states do not act now to \u201cgive international law teeth\u201d, the legal framework governing global order \u201cwill not be worth the paper it\u2019s written on\u201d. Indeed, if the outcome of a meeting defined by compliance with international law is to be measured by Israel and its allies in terms of the \u201csuccess\u201d of a bombed ship, then the very concept of international law has already been set ablaze.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"6567\" data-end=\"6678\">There is no more urgent moment than now to hold to account those setting fire to the rules-based order.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"6567\" data-end=\"6678\"><em><strong>The views expressed in this article are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera\u2019s editorial stance.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a07 mins info In a post from its official X account yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs directed a message towards The Hague Group, a growing coalition of sovereign states \u2013 including South Africa, Colombia, and Malaysia \u2013 that were meeting in an emergency session in The Hague to discuss the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}