By Musa Iqbal / PRESS TV

For almost two years, the world has watched as political institutions, including the United Nations, have failed to meet the moment in the wake of the most horrific crime that can be committed: genocide.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has failed to halt the Israeli genocide in Gaza, and even worse, the United States, a permanent member of the UNSC (which guarantees it veto power to kill any motions), has enabled the ongoing carnage in Gaza.

Backing the Zionist entity politically, financially, and militarily, the U.S. has blocked any reasonable path forward for a ceasefire.

With each delay, the Israeli occupation slaughters thousands of Palestinians in the besieged territory, usurps more land in the occupied West Bank, and advances its expansionist and destabilizing goals in West Asia by attacking sovereign countries.

Despite the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Zionist entity facing the charge of genocide in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), international law has failed to stop the Zionist genocide that has already killed nearly 60,000 people, most of them children and women.

The main actor enabling this blockade of the international order is, of course, the US, which has taken unilateral actions such as imposing sanctions on the ICC, sanctioning UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and threatening countries that move to pass laws cutting ties with the Zionist entity, such as Ireland.

International law is in direct conflict with the U.S. so-called "rules-based order"—a unilateral imposition of laws at the behest of US-based multinational corporations that benefit from the Zionist entity's destabilizing and expansionist policies.

After months of American abuse of its veto power in the UNSC, eight nations convened in January of 2025 to establish "The Hague Group"—countries that insist on ensuring international law is applied to the Israeli occupation, which has enjoyed the political shield of the US and other allies for decades.

The eight nations—Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa—"convened to take 'coordinated legal and diplomatic measures' against Israel's violations of international law."

Before its formation, nations could take independent measures to isolate the Israeli occupation by sanctioning particular corporations, banning the transport of goods such as military armaments, and so on.

However, the lack of international coordination, which creates the conditions for other nations to join in, was lacking. Furthermore, solitary actions from nations would make it easier for the US to apply political pressure to discourage some actions detrimental to it.

With a multi-country formation, united around the basis of international law, applying pressure to the Israeli regime becomes easier and more coordinated, allowing for critical actions, such as the total blockade of the transport of military hardware, to be easily executed.

The Hague Group's second meeting—The Hague Group Emergency Summit—convened in Bogotá, Colombia, this week. From its original meeting of fewer than 10 countries, the July two-day summit saw over 30 countries attend. Countries that sent representatives included China, Pakistan, Mexico, Ireland, Oman, Indonesia, and more.

The summit was called and led by the governments of South Africa and Colombia to take concrete, material steps to halt the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Twelve countries -- Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and South Africa -- have committed to implementing the six measures immediately.

The six measures, per the Hague Group joint statement, are as follows:

Prevent the provision or transfer of arms, munitions, military fuel, related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel.

Prevent the transit, docking, and servicing of vessels at any port… in all cases where there is a clear risk of the vessel being used to carry arms, munitions, military fuel, related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel.

Prevent the carriage of arms, munitions, military fuel, related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel on vessels bearing our flag… and ensure full accountability, including de-flagging, for non-compliance with this prohibition.

Commence an urgent review of all public contracts to prevent public institutions and funds from supporting Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territory and entrenching its unlawful presence.

Comply with obligations to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes under international law, through robust, impartial, and independent investigations and prosecutions at national or international levels, to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes.

Support universal jurisdiction mandates, as and where applicable in national legal frameworks and judiciaries, to ensure justice for victims of international crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The importance of these measures, committed to by a global coalition of countries across different continents, represents a firm defense of upholding international law in the face of the American insistence on imposing a "rules-based order."

Of course, these measures are material, meant to punish and isolate the Zionist occupation economically, politically, and militarily.

For too long, condemnations were the only measures taken on the political front. But political condemnations do not mean much in the long term to the Zionist occupation that is intent on carrying out a genocide.

Nine countries have formed the "Hague Group" to defend Palestinian rights, convening in The Hague under "Progressive International" to coordinate legal, diplomatic, and economic actions against Israel.

The Hague Group's material intervention now opens up a new front with a wide array of measures to be taken against the entity, no longer limiting the global stage to be used for condemnations alone.

Even before the announcement of the measures, the U.S. was angered by the gathering itself.

Zionist media outlet Jewish News Syndicate reported that Washington "strongly opposes efforts by so-called 'multilateral blocs' to weaponize international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas" and that the group "seeks to undermine the sovereignty of democratic nations by isolating and attempting to delegitimize Israel, transparently laying the groundwork for targeting the United States, our military, and our allies."

The US government is well aware of its complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The implementation of these measures will surely mean some form of targeted action from the US.

This is all known and understood by the groups who have signed on, demonstrating yet another shift in global norms: the ability to stand up to US hegemony in a globally coordinated fashion.

Francesca Albanese, recently sanctioned by the US, spoke at the summit and asserted that international law is not optional and is not something that can be applied in some cases but not others.

"International law has been treated as optional—applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful... that era must end."

It is important to note the groundwork this measure lays out. It is undeniably true that for decades, international law as observed within its current framework has been used and abused by Western powers to further their own goals and hegemonic ambitions.

The convening of the Hague Group -- and the insistence on these measures -- opens the door to the restoration of law into the hands of the global, popular majority.  These measures and their implementation are not taking part in a silo -- the backdrop of these measures is an increasingly unstable and diminishing hegemon, the US.

Despite the failure of international law and its abuse, this is a bold new step forward into a reclamation of law from the clutch of the so-called American "rules-based order."  Furthermore, the measures open the door to more countries joining. Even if only twelve of the more than thirty joined right away, it does not mean that the door is shut.

Countries whose interests align with holding the Zionist occupation accountable—and indeed, the restoration of international norms—can review these measures internally and make the preparations to join later on.

The Bogotá Emergency Summit has represented a remarkable shift in who carries out international law. Though the political stage is a battle that is far from over, the Hague Group has effectively called for a reclamation of the rule of law from the hands of its abusers.

By uniting twelve nations in a coordinated effort to implement six concrete measures (with 30+ nations supporting the summit itself)--  ranging from arms embargoes to supporting universal jurisdiction -- The Hague Group has transcended the limitations of symbolic condemnations, delivering a material challenge to the Zionist occupation's violations and the US-led "rules-based order."

While challenges from the U.S. and its junior imperialist partners are inevitable, the summit's outcomes demonstrate a historic shift toward collective political resistance in an era of declining American hegemony.

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Musa Iqbal is a U.S.-based researcher and an editor at Vox Ummah.