Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Tuesday that if Israel does not comply with the United Nations Security Council resolution, which includes a "demand" for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Gaza Strip for two weeks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and calls for the "immediate and unconditional release" of the hostages, then his country "will sever relations" with Israel.
Petro made the threat in a post on the X social media platform.
Petro has taken an aggressive stance against Israel since the outbreak of the war against Hamas, and often makes comparisons between the Israeli bombings in Gaza and the Holocaust.
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Colombian President Gustavo Petro has taken an aggressive stance against Israel since the outbreak of the war against Hamas in Gaza
(Photo: EPA)
Israel decided shortly after the Hamas massacre on October 7 to to stop defense exports to Colombia. At the time, Petro responded to the decision by saying that "if we have to suspend relations with Israel - we will suspend them. We do not support genocide."
Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded to Petro's threat, saying that "the Colombian president's support for the Hamas killers who committed horrific massacres and sexual crimes against babies, women and the elderly is a disgrace to the Colombian people. Israel will continue to protect its citizens and will not submit to any pressures and threats."
In December, Petro referred to the war, and posted on social media against the airstrikes carried out by the IDF in the Gaza Strip. He wrote that "Nazism is a form of violent and deep fascism. It is based on the belief of a superior race that gives it the right to destroy and subjugate those who differ from it, which it even considers inhuman. This is happening in Palestine." He attached a video to his X post showing the Deir al-Balah area being bombed, and wrote: "They say they are not Nazis. Even if the Western conscience does not like these facts, the extermination of 5,300 Palestinian girls and boys is Nazism."
At the beginning of November, Petro announced that he was recalling the Colombian ambassador from Israel "for consultations."
He said that "if Israel does not stop the slaughter of the Palestinian people, we cannot stay there." About two weeks earlier, Colombia's Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva asked Israel's ambassador to the country, Gali Dagan, to apologize and leave his country, following Israel's response to Petro's statements, which compared Israel's attacks in Gaza to the actions of the Nazis. Following Petro's words, Israel suspended the significant defense exports it sends to Colombia.