The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, reacted this Sunday to the announcement by the Government of Israel to suspend exports of security equipment to the country due to his comments following the armed incursion of the Palestinian militia Hamas, on October 7, in which Nearly 1,300 people died, according to Israel. President Petro wrote, on his X account – formerly Twitter -: “If we have to suspend foreign relations with Israel, we suspend them. We do not support genocides. “The president of Colombia is not insulted.”
The State of Israel had announced minutes before the cutoff of exports. Through a statement, the Israeli ambassador to Colombia, Gali Dagan, announced the decision, and indicated that his Colombian counterpart, Margarita Manjarrez, was summoned by the deputy director general for Latin America in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Jonathan Peled, to a “reprimanding conversation.”
In the meeting with the ambassador, the statement continues, she was told that President Petro’s statements were received in Israel with “astonishment,” and added that the president’s comments “reflect support for the atrocities committed” by Hamas. He also considers that the words of the head of state “stir up anti-Semitism, affect the representatives of the State of Israel and threaten the peace of the Jewish community in Colombia.”
Tension between the Governments of Israel and Colombia began a few hours after the armed incursion by Hamas. Last Monday, Petro compared in a trill the situation in the Gaza Strip with the Auschwitz concentration camp, in Poland, in World War II. “I was already in the Auschwitz concentration camp and now I see it copied in Gaza,” wrote Petro, in an exchange on X – formerly Twitter – with Ambassador Dagan.
The president’s comment was repudiated by the World Jewish Congress, which also charged against the president on that social network: “What you are saying is an insult to the six million victims of the Holocaust and the Jewish people. Your comments here and the others on your profile completely ignore the hundreds killed and kidnapped during Hamas’ murderous attack on Israeli civilians. This post is a disgrace to you and your country. A world leader should do better.”
Petro: “Someday the Government of Israel will ask for forgiveness”
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In the same trill in which he was weighing the possibility of suspending bilateral relations between both countries, President Petro brought to the debate the names of Israeli citizens Yair Klein, a former military man and mercenary who trained paramilitary groups in Colombia, and Rafael Eithan, another former military man accused of having suggested to former Colombian president Virgilio Barco to undertake genocide against the leftist Patriotic Union party, whose members were exterminated in the 1980s and 1990s. “Neither the Yair Klein nor the Raifal Eithan will be able to say what the history of peace in Colombia is. They unleashed the massacre and genocide,” he wrote.
Later he added: “Someday the Army and the Government of Israel will ask us for forgiveness for what their men did in our land, unleashing the genocide. I will hug them and cry for the murder of Auschwitz and Gaza, and for the Colombian Auschwitz.” He also asked Latin American nations for “real solidarity” with the country in the face of diplomatic tension, comparing the situation with Colombia’s support for Paraguay in the Chaco War, which pitted it against Bolivia a century ago.
If we have to suspend foreign relations with Israel, we suspend them. We do not support genocides.
The president of Colombia is not insulted.
I call on Latin America to show real solidarity with Colombia. If it is not capable, it will be the development of history that will say the last… https://t.co/WpafrsWkC2
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 15, 2023
Colombia announces the sending of humanitarian aid to Gaza
This Sunday, President Petro announced earlier that Colombia will send humanitarian aid to Gaza seeking the support of Egypt, although he did not detail what things it will provide or how it hopes to do so. The announcement was made known after the European Union warned Israel that it must respect International Humanitarian Law. The heads of State and Government of the 27 countries that make up the community issued a declaration in which they recognize Israel’s right to defend itself, but always in accordance with international law: “We reiterate the importance of guaranteeing the protection of all civilians in at all times, in accordance with international humanitarian law.”
The Government of the United States, the main ally of the State of Israel, spoke in a similar vein through its Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who indicated in a statement: “The way in which Israel does this matters. “It must affirm the shared values we have for life and human dignity, taking all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians.”
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