Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leva on Monday asked the Israeli ambassador in Bogota to "apologize and leave," after Israeli diplomacy responded to statements by President Gustavo Petro in which he addressed the war between Israel and Hamas.
On his account on the X platform, Leyva described Ambassador Gali Dagan’s statements in response to Petro as “crazy impudence.” The Colombian president likened the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip to the Nazis' persecution of Jews during World War II.
On Sunday, Israel, which is one of the largest suppliers of weapons to the Colombian army, announced “the cessation of security-related exports” to the Latin American country.
In a post on the X platform in response to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s announcement of a “total siege” on Gaza in the battle against what he described as “animals,” Petro said, “This is what the Nazis said about the Jews.”
He stressed that "democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to re-establish itself in international politics."
On Sunday, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Hayat reported that Colombia's ambassador to Israel, Margarita Manarez, had been summoned against the backdrop of Petro's "hostile and anti-Semitic" statements.
He added that these statements raised "astonishment" and accused Petro of "expressing his support for the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists, fueling anti-Semitism, influencing representatives of the State of Israel, and threatening the safety of the Jewish community in Colombia."
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Colombian FM asks the Israeli ambassador in Bogota to "leave" the country