Gaza Reaction Shows Growing West-Global South Rift

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Global South's coming of age

The international reaction to the war in Gaza reflects a deeper, long-standing trend in world politics that has seen the fracturing of the established US-dominated, rules-based order . The growing influence of China and the fallout from the war in Ukraine – in which many Global South countries have remained neutral – has upended international relations.

Many analysts point to an emerging multipolar world in which members of the Global South have, as I have written, forged a new active nonaligment path .

And 2023 has been the year that has seen the coming of age of this more assertive Global South.

Thousands march in Capetown. Photo: GroundUp

Some of this is structural. In August, Johannesburg hosted a summit of the BRICS group – a bloc that consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – during which 21 countries from across the Global South applied to join. Six were invited to do so : Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – and they will formally join in January 2024.

This 11-strong BRICS+ group will represent 46% of the world's population and 38% of the world's gross domestic product. In contrast, the Group of Seven leading economies, or G7, represents less than 10% of the world's population and 30% of the global economy .

On November 7, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his G7 counterparts in an attempt to forge a consensus on how to deal with the crisis in the Middle East. Speaking in Japan, he urged that the Western-dominated G7 speak with“one clear voice” on the Middle East crisis.

The question is, can the BRICS+ – and more generally the Global South – do likewise given that it includes an array of countries with very different political and economic systems?

Latin America's pushback

The reaction to the Israel-Hamas violence suggests to me that the Global South is able to speak with, if not one voice, at least a chorus that is not discordant.

Historically, many African and Asian nations have tended to support the Palestinian cause – Indonesia does not even recognize the state of Israel .

But perhaps more surprising has been the strong reaction in Latin America to Israel's actions in Gaza.

In short order, Bolivia broke diplomatic relations with Israel, and Chile and Colombia called their ambassadors from Jerusalem for consultations – an established diplomatic tool to indicate disapproval of a country's conduct.

Brazil, in its capacity as then chair of the United Nations Security Council, introduced the resolution supporting a cease-fire in Gaza. Mexico's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Alicia Buenrostro, called for the“occupying power” of Israel to cease its claim to the Palestinian territories.

Western denialism

The question is: If the Global South is speaking this way on the issue, is the West listening? The voting patterns of Western representatives at the UN suggest the answer is“no.”

In turn, this only adds to the general discontent across the developing world with the current structure of the UN Security Council and its lack of representativeness .

The fact that no country from Africa or Latin America is among the permanent members that enjoy veto power – compared with Western Europe, which is represented by both France and the UK – has long been a source of irritation in the Global South.