Utolsó frissítés: 2026.06.18. — Szerző: Anti-Propaganda News Blog
Hague Group members condemn the genocide in Gaza, yet continue oil and coal shipments.
Written by: Katherine Hearst Published: 18 June 2026 12:04 BST | Last updated: 2 hours and 15 minutes ago
In July 2025, Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered his navy to block all coal shipments to Israel in response to the genocide in Gaza.
Just a few hours earlier, the Maltese-flagged Fortune A coal-laden ship named the . left Puerto Drummond to transport supplies mined by the American company Drummond to the Israeli port of Hadera – despite Petro issuing a decree in 2024 banning all exports.
This was possible because the previous regulation contained a loophole that allowed multinational mineral companies to fulfill their existing contracts.
Thus, on August 28, a second decree went into effect, completely stifling coal supplies to Israel.
Petro left nothing to chance. „Not a single ton of coal will go to Israel, and I will take responsibility for that,” he promised. Exports from Colombia, Israel’s largest coal supplier, fell to zero within a few months.
In March of the following year, Colombia co-chaired a meeting in The Hague involving 40 countries, under the auspices of the Hague Group – the umbrella organization that seeks to enforce international law amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
There, governments as diverse as China, Saudi Arabia, and Spain have committed to banning fuel exports to Israel to „prevent the transfer, transit, or transport of arms, ammunition, military fuels, and dual-use items to Israel—including through export restrictions, port controls, and flag state responsibility.”.
„I think, above all, [coal-producing countries] fear the backlash that could come from Israel’s biggest accomplice, the United States.” — Badra El Cheikh, Palestinian Institute of Public Diplomacy
Nevertheless, exports to Israel continued, including to countries whose officials had signed the agreement.
They include South Africa, which co-chaired the Hague meeting and is a plaintiff in the historic genocide case against Israel currently pending before the International Court of Justice.
As Colombia reduced its coal exports, South Africa stepped in to fill the void, and its shipments to Israel jumped 87 percent.
Pretoria is not alone. Other signatories included Brazil, which indirectly supplied 2.7 million barrels of oil to Israel in 2024.
Campaigners calling for a fuel embargo on Israel point to the Petro ban as evidence that cutting off Israel's fuel supplies is a matter of political will.
Badra El Cheikh, a representative of the Brazil-based Palestinian Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD), told MEE: „Without fuel, the plane doesn’t work, there’s no bombing. There’s no fuel for the illegal settlements.”
„I think, above all, they are afraid of the backlash that could come from Israel’s biggest accomplice, the United States. They are afraid of sanctions, and they are afraid of anything the US could do to their economy.”
Ana Sanchez, general coordinator of the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine (GEEP), said energy deals are less regulated under international law than arms sales, which have a more tangible link to war crimes and are at least regulated by the Arms Trade Treaty.
„Governments and officials have said: if they impose an energy embargo, they will somehow target the civilian population,” he told MEE.
Colombia: How activists enforced a coal ban
Colombia has always been an integral part of Israel's energy supply, exporting coal for its electricity grid, which, among other things, supplies power to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
A few weeks after the start of the Israeli genocide in October, Palestinian unions called on Bogotá to halt energy exports – a demand also supported by Sintracarbon, Colombia’s largest miners’ union.
Exports were banned, but coal giants such as Drummond and the Anglo-Swiss coal company Glencore exploited the Petro ban's loophole and continued to export.
The alarm was raised by a broad coalition, including union workers, indigenous groups and BDS activists, who identified 28 Drummond ships that evaded the ban and headed for Israeli ports between October 2024 and April 2025.
„In Colombia, we have one of the most progressive governments, not only in Latin America, but probably in the world, with a strong commitment to justice” — Ana Sanchez, Global Energy Embargo for Palestine
The second, decisive ban, imposed in August, stopped the flow of Colombian coal to Israel „without exception,” as Petro put it. The government cited the UN Charter, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and World Trade Organization regulations as the legal basis for the order.
Indigenous groups were an integral part of the anti-export campaign. In late May 2025, two months before Petro's call for a blockade, they demonstrated outside coal mines under the slogan "No more coal for genocide.".
Indigenous leaders have stressed how mining Colombian coal to fuel Israel's assault on Gaza represents a "double genocide" for both the Palestinians and themselves.
In La Guajira, the Wayuu people have long accused the Glencore-operated Cerrejon mine—one of the world's largest open-pit mines—of polluting their air with toxic dust and filling their rivers with toxic waste.
The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) has documented over 336,000 cases of respiratory symptoms in the region directly linked to the mine, highlighting that air pollution puts the population at increased risk of cancer, DNA damage and chromosomal instability.
Glencore said it is „committed to improving the living conditions of neighboring communities through voluntary and culturally appropriate programs that focus on access to water, capacity building and the development of income-generating projects,” and is „committed to maintaining respect for human rights, in line with international best practices.”.
In 2017, the Colombian Constitutional Court ordered the suspension of work on the Cerrejon expansion, which would have diverted the Bruno stream, a vital tributary for the Wayuu people. In response, Glencore filed an arbitration claim against the Colombian state, seeking millions of dollars in damages. The case is ongoing.
Colombia also has a bloody history of dealing with mining unions, including death threats and violence by paramilitary groups. Overall, Colombia is the most dangerous country for organized workers, with more than 3,000 union activists murdered since the 1970s.
Drummond and Glencore (through its subsidiary Prodeco) are accused of financing or colluding with paramilitary groups such as the AUC and the Juan Andres Alvarez Front between 1996 and 2006.
The 2014 report detailed testimonies from former paramilitary members, victims, and former employees who alleged that companies had passed intelligence information to these groups about union activists within their workforces.
Both Drummond and Glencore denied the allegations, saying the testimony was unreliable and contradictory.
In 2023, the Colombian Attorney General's Office announced that it would put the current CEO of Drummond Colombia and his predecessor on trial for conspiracy to finance a paramilitary group.
Drummond issued a statement reiterating "that it has never supported illegal armed groups.".
Campaigners also pointed to the role of Israeli mercenaries in arming and training right-wing Colombian paramilitary organizations in the 1980s, including Yair Kleine, who was convicted by a Colombian court in 2001 for providing military training to the AUC.
However, the ban is facing legal resistance. In addition to attempts to nullify it by the Colombian right, Colombia is holding a second round of its presidential election on June 21.
Ivan Cepeda Castro, widely seen as Petro's successor, is in a close race with far-right Abelardo de la Espriella, who unexpectedly won 43.7 percent in the first election and promised to restore relations with Israel and open an embassy in Jerusalem.
Campaigners pointed to Petro's radicalism and the grassroots momentum holding him accountable as reasons for the embargo's success.
Sanchez pointed to a mix of political momentum and the role of unions and civil society that is driving change in Colombia in a way that is lacking in other countries.
„We cannot ignore the fact that in Colombia we have one of the most progressive governments, not only in Latin America, but probably in the world, with a strong commitment to justice.”
South Africa's failure to stop exports
South Africa, like Colombia, is a pillar of the Hague Group, and the African National Congress (ANC), which has dominated politics since the first free elections in 1994, has always supported the Palestinian cause.
In the first six months of 2024, Pretoria was Israel's second largest coal supplier after Colombia, accounting for 60 percent of Israel's coal imports.
But as Colombia's exports fell to zero by November 2025, shipments from South Africa took over, jumping 87 percent.
„There is a direct contradiction between South Africa’s international position, legal obligations and domestic trade” — South African BDS Coalition
South African activists have called for a halt to the trade, highlighting that while it is only a fraction of the country's total coal exports, it accounts for the majority of the supplies that power Israel's electricity grid.
Lawyer Sirhaan Che Khan, a member of the South African Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) coalition, told MEE: „This network supplies power to IDF military bases, weapons manufacturing facilities, surveillance systems, command centers and illegal centers built on occupied Palestinian lands, while Israel cuts off power to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Roshan Dadoo, coordinator of the South African BDS Coalition, said they had contacted government agencies and ministers involved in the export, with no response.
These include the Department of Trade, Industry and Competitiveness (DTIC) and the Department of Transport, which allows coal to be transported from mines via the state-owned trucking company, Transnet, to the port, and to the privately owned Richard's Bay Coal Terminal, from where shipments depart.
BDS activists say the state has a duty to ensure that private companies do not encourage international crimes.
In May, the coalition met with Parks Tau, the DTIC minister, but she said she could not commit to using her authority to stop coal exports to Israel.
„There is therefore a direct contradiction between South Africa’s international position, legal obligations and its domestic trade,” the coalition claimed in a later statement.
Dadoo said South Africa had breached the legal obligations it had invoked in the Genocide Convention case before the ICC.
„We want to know why they are not discussing this ostensibly, or why they are not discussing with us openly what the challenges might be.”
Khan suggested that the government could use the International Trade Administration Act to ban or restrict the import and export of certain goods without parliamentary approval, similar to what was done during the Covid-19 pandemic when certain products were banned to avoid shortages of medical supplies.
MEE reached out to DTIC for comment, but did not receive a response by the time this article went to press.
Khan also argues that all parts of the South African state, as well as entities such as corporations, are obligated to uphold the country's Bill of Rights, which states that fundamental human rights are the cornerstones of the constitutional order. "Our government is very empowered to act."„
Tau warned that if Pretoria were to impose sanctions on Israel, it could face a legal challenge within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
However, the WTO’s trade framework includes „security exceptions” that can be used „in order to fulfill obligations under the Charter of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security.” And Colombia, also a WTO member, has not been challenged since it halted exports.
MEE spoke to a source close to a South African government official who said Pretoria morally supports Palestine but cannot take economic action against Israel without parliamentary legislation. Without it, the source said, businesses affected by the ban could sue the government, which would have no legal protection.
The source also said that an embargo would require political consensus – which is difficult, given that the Government of National Unity is made up of the ANC and its rival, the Democratic Alliance, which has long been critical of its partner’s pro-Palestinian support.
But Khan says there is no need for a separate legislative process – that already exists.
„It’s just that the minister needs to publish the export restrictions against Israel.”
Brazil: Crude oil exports via third countries
In February 2024, Israel declared Brazilian President Lula a "persona non grata" after accusing him of genocide and comparing his actions to the Nazi extermination of the Jews.
And in July 2025, Brasilia announced that it would officially support South Africa in its genocide case against Israel. It also recalled its Israeli ambassador.
But in 2024, amid such tensions, Brazil quietly became the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil to Israel, accounting for nine percent of imports, according to a report by Oil Change International.
Data from the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade and the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) indicate that Brazilian crude oil exports to Israel stopped between January and August 2025.
„Of course Petrobras knows who their customers are” — Leandro Lanfredi, National Oil Workers Union
Petrobras, Brazil's state-owned oil giant, has repeatedly stressed that it has not directly shipped crude oil to Israel, saying it only sells to foreign refiners and has no control over the final destination of the resulting refined products.
In May 2025, two of Brazil's largest oil workers' unions wrote a letter to the government, citing Lula's criticism of Israel and urging an embargo. They received no response.
According to Leandro Lanfredi, head of the National Federation of Oil Workers (FNP), Brazil's crude oil exports were redirected to refineries in Italy, which then exported the oil to Israel.
„Of course Petrobras knows who their customers are,” he said.
According to data obtained by Lanfredi in June and July 2025, the Saras refinery in Sardinia (Italy) exported an estimated 45,000 tons of refined petroleum products to Israel.
Historically, says Lanfredi, Brazilian oil has a baseline average of seven percent in the Saras refinery’s crude mix. But then in June 2025, that number jumped to 47 percent, just as Israel’s crude imports collapsed and imports of refined petroleum products surged.
At the time, Israel was desperately searching for energy sources. Bazan, the country’s largest refinery in Haifa—responsible for about 64 percent of the country’s crude oil processing capacity—was hit by an Iranian drone attack in June 2025, shutting down completely and operating below capacity for months.
And an Ashdod refinery was closed for maintenance in June 2025. Its CEO reported two months later that it was unlikely to fully resume operations until the fourth quarter of 2025.
A Middle East Oil & Gas News and Analysis reported in December that after the attack on Bazan, Israeli refinery output had fallen to a multi-decade low, and imports had to be increased to meet demand.
Lanfredi points out that the state owns more than 50 percent of Petrobras„ voting shares. ”But the government is resistant to taking a position that would cause friction with Petrobras’ private companies and investors.”
This is despite the fact that all activities in the Brazilian oil industry are supposed to be regulated by the national energy agency, the ANP.
MEE has reached out to Brazil's Foreign Ministry for comment. There was no response by the time of publication.
When the Hague Group met in July 2025, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry supported the suspension of arms exports to Israel and the withdrawal from the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.
„But the main thing now is to cut off oil,” says El Cheikh, who points out that Brazil has done this before.
In a 1985 decree, Brazilian President Jose Sarney imposed sanctions on apartheid-era South Africa, including a complete oil and arms embargo.
„"Sarney was not a very left-wing president. So if he succeeded, then it is more than possible for President Lula."”
