Bogota.- The president-elect of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, confirmed this Thursday that after taking office on August 7, he will re-establish “the historic alliance with Israel,” which includes moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as anticipated the day before by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
An agreement to that effect was reached on Wednesday in Washington at a meeting held between Sa’ar and Colombia’s incoming foreign minister, Omar Bula Escobar, the president-elect’s press office indicated.
“The agreement contemplates the immediate exchange of ambassadors, the reciprocal elimination of visas, and progress toward the opening of the Colombian Embassy in Jerusalem, capital of Israel, with the accompaniment of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” it noted in a statement.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro severed diplomatic relations with Israel on May 1, 2024, in rejection of the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip following the attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
However, during the last electoral campaign, De la Espriella promised that he would restore that relationship.
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“The historical relationship that the Petro administration unilaterally broke will be strengthened once again. Colombia will recover its allies, its diplomatic word, and its place as a reliable partner in the world,” added De la Espriella’s statement.
Relations between Colombia and Israel
According to the information, the roadmap agreed upon between Sa’ar and Bula also establishes that Colombia “will resume a serious and responsible position on the international stage, including the United Nations system.”
Along those lines, the South American country “will withdraw its intervention in the case brought by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice,” a case to which Petro added Colombia.
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Until the severance of relations, Israel had been a great ally of Colombia, especially in the fields of security and technology, as well as an important supplier of weapons to the country, from which it in turn bought huge quantities of coal, exports that Petro also suspended.
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“Colombia was one of Israel’s great friends, and that friendship will be again, stronger than ever,” Sa’ar wrote yesterday on his X account, in a post in which he stated that both governments will work to strengthen the bilateral alliance.
Petro and Islamic countries reject the decision
For his part, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, also criticized De la Espriella’s decision to move the Colombian embassy to Jerusalem because, according to him, it is “a maximum insult to all the Islamic peoples of the world.”
“Moving the Colombian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem is a supreme rudeness to all the Islamic peoples of the world, whose religion, like that of Judaism, must be respected,” the outgoing president expressed on X.
Similarly, the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned Colombia’s intention to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a measure that this entity considered “a regrettable departure from the historical positions” of the South American country in “support of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
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In a statement on X, the OIC, which brings together 57 Muslim member countries, noted that if this move were to occur, it would “harm the relations and common interests between Colombia and the member states” of the organization.
In his note, he emphasized the rejection of this “illegal measure,” considering it a “flagrant violation of United Nations resolutions, in particular 476 and 478 of the Security Council, which state that any Israeli measure aimed at altering the character of the city of Jerusalem or its legal and demographic status is null and void.”
Finally, he urged the Colombian Government “to reverse this illegal decision, to support international efforts aimed at achieving peace based on the two-State solution, and to fulfill its responsibilities under the United Nations Charter and relevant UN resolutions.”
