More and more countries in the Global South are cutting relations with Israel, accusing it of committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
United Nations experts have stated that there “are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide … has been met”, adding that “the genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians”.
Scientific experts have estimated that 186,000 Palestinians will die due to Israel’s war of extermination on Gaza, representing roughly 8% of the entire population of the densely populated strip.
Israel’s extreme-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich argued that it would be “justified and moral” to starve to death all 2 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza, but he complained that the international community would not allow it.
Global South backs ICJ case investigating Israel for genocide
South Africa initiated proceedings in December 2023 in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague, the top United Nations legal authority, accusing Israel of violating its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Nicaragua was the first country to join the case South Africa v. Israel, in January 2024. Just a few days later, the ICJ ruled that it is “plausible” that Israel has committed genocide, and the Hague’s judges ordered Tel Aviv to stop killing and causing harm to Palestinians.
Since then, several other nations have officially joined South Africa and Nicaragua in the ICJ lawsuit, including Colombia (in April), Libya (in May), Mexico (in May), Palestine (in May), Spain (in June), Türkiye (in August), Chile (in September), the Maldives (in October), and Bolivia (in October).
Dozens of countries, mostly in the Global South, have expressed support for the ICJ case against Israel.
Nicaragua cuts off diplomatic relations with Israel
On October 11, 2024, Nicaragua announced that it had formally broken diplomatic relations with Israel, writing in a statement that the decision was an act of protest on “the first anniversary of the brutal genocide that the fascist and war criminal government of Israel continues to wage against the Palestinian people”.
Nicaragua said it was “condemning the continued genocide, cruelty, extreme hatred and extermination carried out by the government of Israel, and reiterating the demand for compliance with all United Nations resolutions, for the creation of the state of Palestine, as a free, sovereign, independent and self-determined state”.
The government of Nicaragua warned that Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people “is now expanding against the people of Lebanon, and seriously threatening Syria, Yemen and Iran, endangering the peace and security of the region and the world”.
Nicaragua is governed by the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which came to power in a socialist revolution against a US-backed right-wing dictatorship in 1979. The FSLN has long supported the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Latin America’s left-wing governments support Palestine; right wing supports Israel
Several other countries in Latin America have cut formal ties with Israel, such as Bolivia, which made the announcement in October 2023. The socialist governments of Cuba and Venezuela do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The progressive governments in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Honduras withdrew their ambassadors from Israel in protest of its atrocities.
While left-wing governments in Latin America support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, national liberation, and sovereignty, the right-wing governments of the region are largely allied with the United States and Israel.
This is especially the case for Argentina’s self-declared “anarcho-capitalist” President Javier Milei. The first foreign trip he took after coming to power was to Israel, where Milei expressed full support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist regime.
The far-right Argentine leader claimed that “Israel is not committing a single excess” in Gaza.
Top Israeli newspaper says Netanyahu regime is fascist
While left-wing governments in Latin America have denounced Israel as fascist, it is not a mere term of insult.
Even the major Israeli newspaper Haaretz has published numerous articles describing Netanyahu’s regime as fascist.
“Fascism is here to stay”, mainstream Israeli journalist Yossi Klein wrote in 2022. “The rise of neo-fascism in Israel seriously threatens Israelis and Palestinians alike”, a Haaretz article warned in October 2023, before the genocidal war on Gaza even began.
In 2024, Haaretz warned that left-wing journalists who criticize Israel’s fascist regime could be arrested for treason. Right-wing extremists in the country even called for executing them.
Haaretz, which is often referred to as the New York Times of Israel, is a liberal-Zionist newspaper; it is by no means opposed to the Western settler-colonialist project in historic Palestine. But it acknowledges that Israeli politics have moved so far right that, as one of its headlines stated, “Israel’s Government Has neo-Nazi Ministers. It Really Does Recall Germany in 1933″.
Nicaragua’s National Assembly condemns Israel’s genocide in Gaza
On October 11, Nicaragua’s National Assembly held a “special session of solidarity with the People of Palestine”. In the legislative body, most lawmakers are from the leftist Sandinista Front. They approved a resolution that strongly “condemns the genocide that the Zionist government of Israel commits against the Palestinian people”.
Geopolitical Economy Report has translated the Spanish-language statement approved by Nicaragua’s National Assembly (all bold text is in the original statement):
Condemnation of the genocide that the Zionist government of Israel commits against the Palestinian people
For more than a year, the world has been witness to the genocide that the Government and the army of Israel are committing against the heroic and glorious people of Palestine. This systematic destruction that began 76 years ago has claimed the lives, since October 2023, of more than 42,000 people, mainly women, children, and the elderly; every day the numbers continue to increase.
Zionism and its allies impose their arrogance, cruelty, extreme hatred against innocent families, mercilessly bombing civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, and homes. These brutal actions leave the population devastated, not only by the murders, but also by the destruction of their livelihoods. The brutality of the Israeli government reflects a clear stance of a war of extermination, which constitutes crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and a deliberate policy of annihilation.
The genocide in Gaza represents, undoubtedly, the most detestable atrocity of the 21st century and one of the worst in the history of humanity; despite this barbarity, the world oligarchy that dominates Western governments, and the media and international organizations that supposedly defend human rights, hide the true dimension of the suffering and destruction of the Palestinian people.
The Government of Israel, enemy of humanity, intends to extend its barbarity throughout the Middle East; endangering world peace and security. All this with the complicity and logistical and military support of the North American and European empires, who stand as those truly responsible for the murders and brutalities committed by the tip of their spear: the criminal Zionist regime.
We Nicaraguans carry in our hearts, in our souls, and in our blood the mark left by our history, from the Chiefs Nicarao, Diriangén, and Adiac, lovers of freedom, justice and enemies of slavery and vassalage. The inheritance of Andrés Castro, José Dolores Estrada, Rubén Darío, Benjamín Zeledón, Augusto C. Sandino, Blanca Aráuz, Rigoberto López Pérez, and Carlos Fonseca, who with their anti-imperialist thinking and their liberatory actions inspire us to defend peace, sovereignty, self-determination, and solidarity among nations.
Because of this, we are a people who in international forums denounce these policies of extermination and constantly call for peace in Palestine and the region. We take action in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejecting the violations of International Law, Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law committed by the Zionist government of Israel.
We reaffirm our historical ties of brotherhood with the people of Palestine. We respect the Israeli people who demand the cessation of this massacre, barbarity, and crimes committed by the nefarious Zionist government and army.
We reiterate our demand for compliance with all United Nations resolutions for the creation of the State of Palestine, as a Free, Sovereign, Independent, and Self-Determining State.
In the face of these atrocious, criminal, and cruel actions by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, the National Assembly of Nicaragua respectfully asks the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity to consider breaking diplomatic relations with the genocidal Zionist government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
LONG LIVE FREE PALESTINE, LONG LIVE WORLD PEACE.
Managua, October 11, 2024.
