SCOOP: In webinar with current and former UN staff, anti-Israel coalition admits secret coordination with US-sanctioned group

Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, executive secretary of the Hague Group, seemed to think that she was speaking confidentially during a webinar last Thursday, during which she said that the “Hague Group and South Africa and Colombia’s co-chairs are advised by a variety of Palestinian organizations,” including Al Haq.

Marco Rubio, U.S. secretary of state, announced American sanctions against Al Haq and two other organizations on Sept. 4 for being “directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”

Formed in early 2025, the Hague Group is a coalition of countries that says it is devoted to “coordinated legal and diplomatic measures” to defend “international law and solidarity with the people of Palestine.”

South Africa, Colombia, Malaysia, Cuba, Namibia and Senegal are part of the group. Honduras and Bolivia exited the Hague Group in March, after both, under new leadership, established warmer ties with Israel.

Gandikota-Nellutla said at the April 30 online event that “there has been a very careful and actually kind of talked-out dynamic between the states,” of the Hague Group, “and the civil society groups where they have been present at every single ministerial meeting.”

“They have not been formally in the group, because that’s precisely what would scare away the Europeans—to see this as a radical campaign group, to see this not as a diplomatic bloc that’s led by other states,” she said.

The group executive secretary said that Al Shabaka, a U.S.-based nonprofit, billed as a Palestinian think tank but which has a long history of boycotting Israel and justifying terror, is also advising the Hague Group. (JNS sought comment from the Hague Group, U.S. State Department and the Israeli mission to the United Nations.)

Gandikota-Nellutla’s comments came during the webinar, which United Staff for Gaza hosted. The group used to be called “U.N. Staff for Gaza,” and it consists of current and former United Nations staff members.

“I want to make sure that we’re in a kind of confidential, friendly space here,” Gandikota-Nellutla said during the webinar.”

She added that the South African and Colombian co-chairs of the group “actually have done a fantastic job building this really novel, hybrid model, which doesn’t exist” and “getting advice while still retaining the diplomatic integrity of the group.”

Andrew Gilmour, chair of United Staff for Gaza and a former senior U.N. official, cut in moments later.

“Varsha, before you say anything else confidential, there are 108 people on this call, so just assume it’s not confidential,” he told Gandikota-Nellutla. “Don’t please tell us anything that you would rather was not made public—not that anyone that I know would dream of making it public.”

Loris Elqura, a veteran of several U.N. agencies who is now a donor relations officer for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, moderated the webinar.