MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Israel and Colombia to sever ties after Petro's remarks?

“Someday the army and government of Israel will apologize to us,” Petro said

Diplomatic ties between Israel and Colombia hang from a thread after the South American country's President Gustavo Petro made public his stance regarding the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.

“If we have to suspend foreign relations with Israel, we suspend them. We do not support genocides. The president of Colombia is not insulted,” said Petro on X (formerly Twitter) following Israel's announcement that exports of security materials were to be stopped.

Si hay que suspender relaciones exteriores con Israel las suspendemos. No apoyamos genocidios.

Al presidente de Colombia no se le insulta.

Convoco a América Laltina a una solidaridad real con Colombia. Y si no es capaz, será el desarrollo de la historia la que dirá la última… https://t.co/WpafrsWkC2

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 15, 2023

Israel's measure came after Petro likened the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to Germany's World War II National-Socialists (Nazis) and failed to condemn Hamas' actions downright, for which Colombian Ambassador Margarita Manjarez was summoned.

“At the meeting, it was made clear to the ambassador that her president’s statements were received in Israel with shock given Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack, in which more than 1,300 Israelis were murdered and over 150 innocent civilians were kidnapped,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lior Hayat said.

“Israel condemns the president’s statements, which constitute support for the horrific acts of Hamas terrorists, inflame antisemitism, harm representatives of the State of Israel, and threaten the safety of the Jewish community in Colombia. As the first measure taken in response, Israel decided to stop security exports to Colombia,” he added.

The Israeli government also wanted to make clear its ”astonishment“ at the way Petro had reacted to the ”savage terrorist attack“ perpetrated by Hamas militiamen, Israel's Ambassador to Colombia Gali Dagan also explained on social networks.

Petro, a former member of the M19 armed guerilla and Colombia’s first-ever leftwing president, had said on X that the Gaza Strip was being turned “into a concentration camp.”

The former Mayor of Bogotá on Sunday called ”Latin America to a real solidarity with Colombia. If it is not capable, it will be the development of history that will say the last word, as in the great Chaco war,“ he said without explaining the connection between the conflict pitting Paraguay against Bolivia from 1932 through 1935 and the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.

Israel halted all exports of security equipment to Colombia in response to ”hostile and anti-Semitic statements“ by Petro, who on social networks daily expresses his support for the Palestinian cause and is highly critical of Israel but not quite so of Hamas. Petro's statements reflect support for Hamas, Hayat also underlined.

The South American leader said he would not recant and welcomed the European Union's call for the rule of International Law whereby systematic targeting of civilians is prohibited and genocides are forbidden. Petro also confirmed his Government's willingness to send humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip with the support of Egypt before recalling that Israeli arms dealer Yair Klein is said to have been behind the supply of weapons and training to paramilitary groups in Colombia.

”Neither [the likes of] Yair Klein or [late former Israeli General and Member of Knesset-Parliament] Raifal Eithan may say what the history of peace in Colombia is. They unleashed the massacre and genocide in Colombia,“ Petro stressed.

”Someday the army and the government of Israel will ask us for forgiveness for what their men did in our land unleashing genocide. I will embrace them and weep for the murder of Auschwitz and Gaza, and for the Colombian Auschwitz. Hitler will be defeated for the good of humanity, its democracy, Peace, and freedom of the world,” he went on.