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Colombia’s warming ties with Israel appear set to take a big hit with the presidential election victory of leftist former insurgent Gustavo Petro, an outspoken critic of Israel who has in contrast therapy of the Palestinians to the “discrimination” suffered by Jews by the hands of the Nazis.
“The State of Israel is one factor and the Jewish faith is one other, simply because the Colombian State is one factor and the Catholic faith one other,” Petro tweeted in 2019. “Complicated state and faith is typical of the archaic mentality. The State of Israel discriminates in opposition to Palestinians just like the Nazis discriminated in opposition to Jews.”
Petro had additionally been a vocal opponent of the 2017 United States choice to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and accused the Israel Protection Forces of finishing up a “bloodbath” in opposition to Gazans throughout violent border protests in opposition to the US embassy switch in Could 2018.
In response to a 2014 article in Colombia’s El Tiempo (in Spanish), Israel’s embassy in Bogota publicly rebuked Petro, then mayor of the capital, for publishing false photos that he claimed have been of Gazans killed by Israel throughout the month-and-a-half-long battle between the IDF and the Hamas terror group that yr within the Gaza Strip.
“False and manipulated photographs of what’s supposedly taking place within the Gaza Strip,” the embassy mentioned, based on the report, including that “most of those photographs are previous and are available from the interior battle in Syria.”
Individually, Petro tweeted a photograph of an anti-Israel protest in Nice Britain in July 2014, captioning it “London in opposition to the barbarism.”
Petro has additionally mentioned he’s prepared to renew diplomatic relations with Venezuela, halted in 2019, which might additionally show a sticking level with Israel as Venezuela is a key ally of Iran.
On Tuesday, Israel’s Overseas Ministry tweeted congratulations on Petro’s win.
“We congratulate the Individuals of Colombia and President Elect Petro Gustavo on a profitable democratic election and look ahead to additional strengthening the relations between Israel and Colombia and between our two peoples,” the tweet learn.
Petro’s predecessor Colombian President Iván Duque had superior ties with Israel all through his time period, visiting Israel in November to open a commerce and innovation workplace in Jerusalem, a transfer that was seen as deepening already shut ties between Israel and a key ally in South America.
He met with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem, the place the 2 leaders mentioned the Iran risk, amongst different regional challenges. Bennett thanked Duque for including Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps to Colombia’s checklist of terrorist organizations.
At a state dinner hosted by President Isaac Herzog, Duque declared, “Colombia is Israel’s primary ally in Latin America.”
Petro was as soon as a insurgent with the now-defunct M-19 motion and was granted amnesty after being jailed for his involvement with the group.
Sunday’s victory was his third try to win the presidency, incomes 50.48% of the votes, based on outcomes launched by election authorities. Petro, 62, can be formally declared winner after a proper depend that can take a couple of days. Traditionally, the preliminary outcomes have agreed with the ultimate ones.
He has proposed bold pension, tax, well being and agricultural reforms and adjustments to how Colombia fights drug cartels and different armed teams.
The election got here as Colombians wrestle with rising inequality, inflation and violence — elements that led voters within the election’s first spherical final month to punish long-governing centrist and right-leaning politicians and decide two outsiders for the runoff contest.
Petro’s displaying was the most recent leftist political victory in Latin America fueled by voters’ need for change. Chile, Peru and Honduras elected leftist presidents in 2021, and in Brazil former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is main the polls for this yr’s presidential election.
However the outcomes have been an instantaneous cause to worry for some voters whose closest reference to a leftist authorities is the troubled neighboring Venezuela. Petro additionally desires to make adjustments to Colombia’s relations with the US by in search of a renegotiation of a free commerce settlement and new methods to battle drug trafficking.
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