When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approached the UN General Assembly lectern on 26 September, dozens of delegates walked out in protest, emptying entire blocks of seats. This exodus was not only a rebuke. It reflected a turning point, as many of those same states assembled just blocks away to convene the largest meeting yet of The Hague Group.

Even with a reduced audience, Netanyahu’s words were defiant. He derided recognition of a Palestinian state as a “mark of shame” and vowed to “finish the job” in Gaza — the very campaign the UN Commission of Inquiry had determined, just one week earlier, to constitute genocide. In an act characteristic of the sadistic terror inflicted on the people of Gaza, Israeli regime media reported that Netanyahu’s speech was broadcast throughout the besieged strip — directly into the hacked phones of its starving residents.

But meaningful opposition to the genocide is mounting. As Netanyahu gave his hateful speech, The Hague Group convened foreign ministers and envoys from 35 states for a high-level meeting: to coordinate legal, economic, and diplomatic actions against Israel.

States presented concrete proposals to consolidate the growing wave of national policy responses into “a coordinated global strategy,” according to the co-chairs. “Such coordination strengthens the global response to Israel’s ongoing crimes, setting a model for all states to immediately fulfil their legal obligations, and creating robust mechanisms for accountability at the national, regional, and international levels.”

The proposed measures included: halting military and dual-use exports; refusing Israeli weapons shipments at ports; preventing vessels under national flags from carrying arms to Israel; reviewing and cancelling public contracts with Israeli firms; pursuing justice through universal jurisdiction; suspending military procurement; divesting public institutions from complicit companies; and instituting energy embargoes.

In their closing statement, Foreign Ministers Rosa Villavicencio (Colombia) and Ronald Lamola (South Africa) were unequivocal: “The choice before every government is clear: complicity or compliance. History will judge us not by the speeches we delivered, but by the actions we took.”

The Hague Group’s ministerial meeting was followed by a public gathering at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, where a packed auditorium heard from Rula Jebreal, Noura Erakat, Nayda Tannous and Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

"Colombia has now employed an energy embargo against the state of Israel, stopping coal exports,” said Tannous, who represented PI member the Palestinian Youth Movement. “It shows that it is possible to not just speak words in the UN chamber but take action to stop a genocide."

President Petro was clear: “It’s useless to recognise a state if bombs fall upon it.” He warned, “If Gaza falls, humanity falls” — echoing his message of solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla, now sailing toward Gaza with its lifeline of humanitarian aid.

Together, the Flotilla and the Hague Group highlight a growing convergence of pressure — from states and from grassroots movements — to cut the material lifelines of Israel’s war machine.

As Netanyahu left the Assembly under a cloud of diplomatic rejection, the Hague Group emerged with something larger: the outlines of a new global effort to rescue international law and international institutions from those seeking to dismantle them for good.

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