Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro on Thursday suspended arms imports from Israel and called on a global boycott of the self-proclaimed Jewish State.
In a tweet, Petro announced the import ban in response to a massacre of more than a hundred starving Palestinians in the city of Gaza, which has been under attack by Israeli forces since October.
President Gustavo Petro
According to the Colombian president, the massacre victims were “assassinated” by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Netanyahu administration had already suspended “security exports” to Bogota over Petro’s “hostile and anti-Semitic statements.”
The Colombian president has been one of the most vociferous critics of a military assault on Gaza in response to a surprise attack in southern Israel by Palestinian armed groups in October last year.
Colombia’s Foreign Ministry previously recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv in protest over the mass killing of Palestinian civilians.
On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry accused Israel’s ambassador to Bogota, Gali Dagan, of meddling internal affairs.
Dagan had mocked genocide accusations made by Colombia’s tax chief on Twitter, which would be in violation of diplomatic protocol.
Israel’s alleged genocide has cost the lives of more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza and hundreds in the occupied West Bank since hostilities reignited in October.