At the UN, Colombia's President Compared Israel to the Nazi Regime

Video: Celebrations marking Gustavo Petro’s victory after being elected president of Colombia / Photo: Reuters

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro compared Israel today (Wednesday) to the Nazi regime at the UN Security Council: “Twenty thousand people have been killed in Gaza. These numbers cannot be hidden, no political or economic interest can hide this fact. And this is the real red thread of what I am going to say here, that we are returning to the Nazi era,” he said.

As early as May 2024, Petro, announced today that his country would sever ties with Israel because of the continuing war in Gaza. He had threatened in March of that year to do so if a cease-fire was not reached in the fighting. “Here before you, the government of change, of the President of the Republic, announces that tomorrow we will sever diplomatic relations with the State of Israel because it has a government and a president who support genocide,” Petro said before his supporters in Bogota, who marched to mark Labor Day and to back Petro’s social and economic reforms. According to him, countries cannot be “passive” in the face of events in Gaza.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro at a protest in New York / Reuters, Bing Guan

Relations between Israel and the South American country have already deteriorated since the outbreak of the war “Swords of Iron.” Colombia announced the recall of its ambassador from Israel less than a month after the war began. Colombia also sharply condemned the Israeli attacks on Gaza and the harm to Palestinian civilians, without referring to Hamas’s crimes. It did so together with Chile and Bolivia, which went further and already severed diplomatic relations with Israel. In addition, the left-wing administration led by Petro even asked to join South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in which it alleges “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.