2024-05-05 18:45:55
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced this Wednesday from the Plaza de Bolívar that will break diplomatic relations with Israel starting this Thursday and called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “genocidal.”
“Tomorrow diplomatic relations with the State of Israel will be broken (…) for having a genocidal president“said the leftist president, in favor of the Palestinian cause, in a speech with his followers in Bogotá.
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Petro is critical of the relentless response of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip to the attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in October 2023 on Israeli territory.
“The times of genocide cannot come, of the extermination of an entire people before us. If Palestine dies, humanity dies,” said the Colombian president amid cries of support.
The conflict broke out on October 7, when Hamas commandos killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 in southern Israel, according to a count based on Israeli statistics. Israeli authorities estimate that 129 people remain captive in Gaza, of whom 34 have died.
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Israel’s military response has caused more than 34,000 deadmostly civilians, according to the Ministry of Health of this Hamas-ruled territory.
Colombia is one of South Africa’s main allies in the lawsuit it filed against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for acts of “genocide” in Gaza.
Petro believes that Netanyahu is violating norms contained in the 1948 Convention for the Prevention of Genocide. In April, Colombia asked the ICJ to intervene in the lawsuitalthough so far no response has been received.
(With information from AFP)
President Petro announces breaking relations with Israel.
Expansion >> pic.twitter.com/Nt8SIyRrCm
— Noticias Caracol (@NoticiasCaracol) May 1, 2024
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2024-05-05 18:45:55