Colombia tells Israel ambassador to leave as diplomatic feud over Gaza war deepens. Colombia FM compared Israel forces to Nazis during ongoing conflict
Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva says Gali Dagan should ‘at a minimum, apologize and leave’ for rebuking President Gustavo Petro, who compared Israel forces to Nazis during ongoing conflict.
Colombia on Monday demanded that Israel’s ambassador leave the South American country, given a worsening spat over President Gustavo Petro’s remarks on the war with Hamas.
Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva said the Israel ambassador to Colombia, Gali Dagan, should, “at a minimum, apologize and leave” after criticizing Petro’s comparison of Israeli attacks on Gaza with the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Leyva lashed out on social media at the “rudeness” of Israel’s response to Petro, adding: “Shame.”
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Petro, in one post on X, accused Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of using language about the people of Gaza similar to what the “Nazis said of the Jews.”
On Sunday, Israel, one of the main providers of arms to Colombia’s military, said it was “halting security exports” to the South American country as the diplomatic feud escalated.
In response to statement, Petro said his country does not support “genocide.”
“If we have to suspend foreign relations with Israel, we suspend them,”
he added.
Petro has also engaged in an online war of words directly with the Israel ambassador to Denmark, Dagan, who had urged the president to condemn a “terrorist attack against innocent civilians.”
In his response, Petro said: “Terrorism is to kill innocent children, whether it be in Colombia or in Palestine.”
Dagan (the Israel ambassador to Denmark) then invited Petro to visit the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, which the president retorted he saw being “copied in Gaza.”
“No democrat in the world can accept Gaza being turned into a concentration camp,” Petro added.
Source: Times of Israel
