Al Mezan Welcomes ‘The Hague Group’ Actions, Expresses Outrage at EU’s Continued Idleness on Israel

Gaza, 17 July 2025 — Al Mezan strongly welcomes the outcomes of the Emergency Conference convened by The Hague Group in Bogotá on 15 and 16 July 2025, where 30 states from Africa, Asia, Europe, and America met with the declared aim to take concrete measures to stop the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and to bring an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory.

At the closing of the conference, the members of The Hague Group committed to six coordinated diplomatic, legal, and economic measures, including an arms embargo on Israel and support for universal jurisdiction mechanisms to prosecute individuals responsible for international crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). We call on all other participating states, as well as the broader international community, to commit to these measures and uphold their obligations under international law, including the duty to prevent genocide.

Al Mezan applauds the leadership of The Hague Group and its co-chairs, Colombia and South Africa, as well as the collective commitment of its founding members to move beyond symbolic condemnation of Israel’s crimes. This landmark initiative marks a long-overdue shift toward meaningful action and sends a clear message to the international community: Israel’s impunity must end. Genocide must not be tolerated or normalized, nor can the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory and the denial of the inalienable right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.

In parallel to the meeting taking place in Bogotá, the Council of the European Union met in Brussels and shamefully failed to adopt any measures against Israel despite an internal EU review concluding that Israel is breaching Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The previous day, an Israeli delegation participated in the 5th EU-Southern Neighbourhood Ministerial Meeting, alongside, amongst others, representatives of the Palestinian Authority. Al Mezan strongly condemns any attempt to normalize relations with a state that is actively committing genocide, maintaining an unlawful occupation, and enforcing a regime of apartheid.

“The glaring contrast between the actions of the Hague Group and the EU’s continued paralysis lays bare the EU’s moral and political bankruptcy,” said Issam Younis, Al Mezan’s General Director. “By refusing to act, even in light of its own findings, the EU is not only complicit in Israel’s crimes, but actively normalizing them. Its inaction enables Israel to continue starving and mass killing Palestinians in Gaza and to expand its settler-colonial enterprise across the West Bank.”

Al Mezan also decries the 10 July 2025 statement by the EU High Representative and Vice President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas, which represents yet another attempt by the EU to normalize Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the deliberate starvation of two million Palestinians. The characterization of “constructive dialogue” with Israel and the claim that “significant steps” will be taken to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza are a grotesque distortion of reality.

The statement entirely omits the fact that the implementation of the U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme, in place since 27 May 2025, has resulted in the killing of over 851 Palestinian civilians and 5,634 injuries at aid distribution points operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Just yesterday, 16 July 2025, at least 20 Palestinian civilians died and dozens more were injured at a GHF aid distribution site in Khan Younis.

Kallas’ statement also fails to place any meaningful pressure on Israel to reinstate the humanitarian aid delivery system coordinated and carried out by the United Nations, credible international NGOs, and other impartial humanitarian actors—a system urgently needed to be reinstated in order prevent further loss of life and ensure the safe, effective, and dignified delivery of aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Even more troubling, the statement reflects a deliberate refusal to acknowledge the true nature of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza: this is not a natural disaster, but a man-made genocide resulting from intentional Israeli policies of starvation, forced displacement, and mass destruction and killing.

The 10 July statement cannot, in any way, be seen as a substitute for concrete measures in response to the EU’s own assessment of Israel’s breaches of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Israel’s violations are not only about the blockade of humanitarian aid, nor are they confined to Gaza; they are part of a broader, decades-long system of oppression that includes the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and the enforcement of an apartheid regime against the Palestinian people as a whole. Engaging in ‘constructive dialogue’ with a state actively committing genocide, enforcing apartheid, and maintaining an illegal occupation serves only to normalize atrocity and further erode what little credibility remains of the EU’s commitment to human rights and international law.

In conclusion, Al Mezan commends the principled and courageous leadership demonstrated by The Hague Group. Their coordinated legal, diplomatic, and economic measures represent a concrete response to Israel’s impunity and a meaningful attempt to uphold international law, justice, and the rights of the Palestinian people. We appreciate the support demonstrated by The Hague Group to Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. We call on the broader international community to continue supporting her mandate as well as other accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court (ICC), and to firmly reject politically motivated measures taken by the United States to obstruct justice and shield Israel from accountability.

In light of the EU’s failure to act, Al Mezan calls on EU Member States to break from the EU’s current trajectory of complicity and double standards by joining The Hague Group, or at a minimum, by endorsing and implementing the measures adopted on 16 July. What is needed now is action: sanctions, accountability, and support for international legal processes that confront the full scope of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.