Diplomatic tension between Israel and Colombia due to the Palestinian conflict. Since the terrorist attacks by Hamas and the immediate reaction of the Israeli government by bombing Gaza, the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, has been very belligerent against Israel, denouncing on his social networks the siege of the Palestinian population of the strip, which he has described of “genocide.”
A week after the Hamas action, the escalation has led Petro to threaten to suspend diplomatic relations with Israel, after Tel Aviv decreed the cessation of exports of security material to Colombia.
"If we have to suspend foreign relations with Israel, we suspend them. We do not support genocides. The president of Colombia is not insulted," Petro tweeted late on Sunday, when he also announced the sending of humanitarian aid to Gaza and requested the convening of a extraordinary assembly of the UN.
Petro's threat was the almost immediate response to a statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry that described the Colombian leader's statements as “hostile and anti-Semitic” and announced that security exports were being cancelled. At the same time, Tel Aviv had summoned the Colombian ambassador to Israel to reprimand her.
This Monday, the Colombian Foreign Minister, Álvaro Leyva, urged the Israeli ambassador, Gali Dagan, to leave the country. “The history of universal diplomacy will record as a milestone the senseless arrogance of the Israeli ambassador in Colombia towards Gustavo Petro, president of the Republic. Shame. At the very least, apologize and leave,” Leyva tweeted.
What angered Israel most was Petro's comparison between Gaza and the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant ordered the siege of the strip, cutting off electricity, water and electricity. access to food and fuel. “We are fighting human animals,” Galant said, to which Petro responded: “This is what the Nazis said about the Jews. Democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to reestablish itself in international politics. “Israelis and Palestinians are human beings subject to international law.” Later, the Israeli ambassador in Bogotá invited the president to visit Auschwitz and Petro responded: “I was already in the Auschwitz concentration camp and now I see it copied in Gaza.”
The Colombian president also recalled that a former Israeli soldier turned mercenary, Yair Klein, was key to training the paramilitaries of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia in the late 1980s.
In recent days, Petro has focused on appealing to the United States to stop the announced Israeli invasion of Gaza, along with the bombings, and to guarantee humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population. “We must reject bombings against children anywhere in the world,” Petro also tweeted.
