(Raul Arboleda, AFP)
Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on May 1 the severing of diplomatic relations with Israel, calling the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “genocidal” for its conduct of war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel reacted by accusing Petro of wanting to “reward” the Palestinian group Hamas, which welcomed the Colombian president’s announcement.
In recent months Petro had repeatedly criticized the Israeli offensive in Gaza, following the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli territory on 7 October.
“Tomorrow we will sever diplomatic relations with the state of Israel because of its genocidal government,” Petro said in a speech in Bogotá to thousands of supporters.
“We cannot accept the extermination of an entire people,” added the Colombian president. “If Palestine dies, humanity dies.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Petro of “anti-Semitism.” “The Colombian president promised to reward the murderers and rapists of Hamas, and today he kept his promise,” he wrote on the social network
“We appreciate the gesture of Colombian President Gustavo Petro,” Hamas said in a statement, calling on other Latin American countries to sever relations with Israel.
Bolivia, which has a left-wing president, and Belize, a small Central American state, had already severed diplomatic relations with Israel due to the offensive in the Gaza Strip.
South Africa, which has supported the Palestinian cause for years, recalled all its diplomats from Israel in early November.
On February 20, Petro had accused Israel of committing “genocide”, expressing solidarity with his Brazilian colleague Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, contested by the Israeli government after comparing the offensive in the Gaza Strip to the Shoah.
The Colombian president had also suspended the purchase of weapons produced in Israel, one of the main suppliers of the South American country’s security forces.
