Colombia’s exit a blow to SA-led antizionist Hague Group

Extremist anti-Israel diplomatic bloc The Hague Group has been shaken by the dramatic exit of Colombia, which co-chaired the group with South Africa. 

In July 2025, Hamas praised the group for resolving to target the Jewish State with legal, economic, and diplomatic measures. But after Colombians voted in a new government just a couple of weeks later, Bogotá radically changed course, re-establishing close ties with Israel. 

It closed its embassy in Pretoria in July, and opened an embassy in Jerusalem last week. It was at the opening of this embassy that Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar announced the withdrawal from The Hague Group, which he said “is a group of countries that attacked Israel and worked to isolate it. We oppose that approach.” 

South African Zionist Federation spokesperson Rolene Marks says, “Colombia did not quietly exit The Hague Group on 16 October 2026. It repudiated it.” 

Escobar announced the withdrawal the same day Colombia opened its embassy in Jerusalem, the 10th foreign embassy in Israel’s capital, and formally reversed [previous president] Gustavo Petro’s termination of the Colombia-Israel free trade agreement. “That is not symbolism. It is restitution,” says Marks. 

Escobar said that 7 October “was a barbaric attack carried out by despicable murderers from a culture of death”, and that Colombia stands with the truth and with Israel. He said the previous government in Colombia had “behaved disgracefully”, failing to condemn terrorism and opening the door to “an ugly wave of antisemitism”. The Hague Group was advised by groups supportive of terrorism from its inception. 

Escobar described the opening of Colombia’s embassy in Jerusalem as a “historic event” and said, “I’m almost in tears at this event marking the restoration of relations with Israel, which should never have been severed.” He also met with freed hostage Elkana Bohbot, whose wife hails from Colombia, and said that hostage survivors “are an inspiration to us all”. 

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ David May says South Africa helped launch The Hague Group “to bolster its lawfare campaign against Israel”. But now, four of the nine original members have departed – Colombia, Belize, Bolivia, and Honduras. 

“What was supposed to be a global campaign to support human rights has been exposed as an extremist attempt to undermine Israel through political means,” says May. “Their departures have weakened The Hague Group and demonstrated the limited appetite among third parties for persecuting Israel under the guise of accountability.” 

Even the Middle East Monitor, a news outlet sympathetic to Hamas, asked if The Hague Group is “beginning to fall apart” with the withdrawal of Bolivia and Colombia. 

The remaining members of the group are Cuba, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa. There is a possibility that Malaysia may take Colombia’s place as co-chair with South Africa. 

Executive director of the Middle East Africa Research Institute Benji Shulman says, “Colombia was one of the founding countries of The Hague Group, so its withdrawal shows that The Hague Group is principally a political institution and not one that’s seriously involved with global governance.” 

For example, “no one removes themselves from the United Nations because the domestic political situation changed, but that’s exactly what happened here”. 

He says the same is likely to happen with other countries, for example Brazil or Spain, if governments change. 

“So, it is important, and it does undermine the organisation and show that it’s not a normal international forum, but really a political one with different actors,” says Shulman. 

He says The Hague Group can be seen as the “diplomatic version” of BRICS. “BRICS is an economic alliance, but The Hague Group is a way to build up an alternative diplomatic structure in the world to oppose the United States and Israel.” 

Therefore, the withdrawal of Colombia is significant, “but not necessarily fatal”, he says. 

“South Africa won’t abandon The Hague Group, because it’s of its making and because it fits in with the ANC’s political stances.” 

Shulman says Colombia’s pro-Israel shift signifies a wider “geostrategic change, particularly in South America”. 

Essentially, “the whole of South America is a pro-Israel continent almost, with the exception of Brazil”, says Shulman. “But there’s a big election coming up on 25 October in Brazil, where it’s possible that a more pro-Israel government will come in. If that happens, then all the major countries in South America – Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and even Venezuela – basically the whole continent, will now be pro-Israel.” 

Middle East expert Professor Glen Segell agrees that “a formidable setback to South Africa’s anti-Israel campaign emerges from South American political currents”. 

Within the past half-year, “three nations have witnessed triumphant right-leaning electoral movements, Colombia, Bolivia, and Honduras,” says Segell. “For these countries, abandoning their Hague Group membership represents a pivotal transformation in foreign policy, as their political ideology renders sustained participation fundamentally incompatible with their governance principles.” 

Now, they are pursuing enhanced ties with Washington and Israel, “recognising these alliances as vital sources of political credibility and global influence”. 

The trajectory becomes “unmistakable” for The Hague Group “as these withdrawals illuminate a fundamental weakness: its viability hinges critically on the political longevity of administrations committed to maintaining anti-Israeli stances”, says Segell. “Following these departures, The Hague Group confronts a genuine peril of diminishing political leverage and continental standing. It now finds itself progressively confined to a narrower circle of smaller nations.” 

May says that “Israel has become a global political football, a lightning rod for the progressive-conservative divide. Sharp swings among democracies have caused whiplash in how countries approach Israel.” 

Marks says Colombia now joins Bolivia and Honduras, both founding members of this bloc, “both gone within the year, each departure following an election that chose cooperation over confrontation. A coalition built in January 2025 to isolate Israel is being dismantled one election at a time by the very governments that founded it.” 

She says “South Africa should take note” because “the company it keeps on this file is shrinking, and the governments abandoning The Hague Group are not retreating from principle. They are correcting a mistake. Pretoria has yet to ask itself why.”