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Colombia and South Africa will convene an emergency conference on Gaza in Bogota on Tuesday calling on ministers from states across the world to deliberate a multilateral defense of international law, focusing on Israeli atrocities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The two countries co-chair The Hague Group of 10 nations from the Global South formed in January to protect and uphold rulings on the Israeli Palestinan conflict by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. The aim of the conference is to urgently develop “concrete legal, diplomatic and economic measures that can halt Israel’s destruction – and uphold the foundational principle that no state is above the law.” All countries are invited.

For the past several years, Colombia has led a fundamental change in Latin America to turn the tide against Israel there, a change that has accelerated since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023. This change is remarkable, considering that Colombia had been historically a close partner of Israel. Until 2018, it was one of the few remaining governments in Latin America that did not recognize Palestine as a state. Israel was Colombia’s main partner in the Middle East and North Africa, while Colombia was Israel’s second-largest trading partner in South America. For decades, Colombia’s military had a close relationship with Israel’s. It acquired numerous weapon systems and ammunition produced and/or maintained by Israel, including the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Spike missile, the Israel Weapons Industries-made 5.56mm Galil automatic rifle machinegun and .7.62mm Galil sniper rifle, Rafael Python-3 and Python-4 air-to-air missiles, and Israel Aerospace Industries Kfir fighter jets, and has signed up for the Barak MX air defense system.

It all began to change with Colombia’s recognition of the state of Palestine in 2018. Although that drew a strong diplomatic reaction from Israel, their partnership survived. In October 2023, however, Colombia condemned Israel’s conduct in Gaza and recalled its ambassador. President Gustavo Petro compared the Israeli military to Nazis. Later that month, Israel halted all security exports to Colombia.

In April 2024, Colombia joined 24 other states and international organizations in becoming a party to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice alleging genocide in the Gaza Strip, in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

The longer Israel continues its onslaught on Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, the more Latin and South American nations are breaking their historical ties with Tel Aviv

Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg

Then, in April this year, Colombia said it would buy up to 24 fighter jets from Swedish company Saab to replace the ageing Israel-made Kfir, whose maintenance has become complicated after Israel and Colombia broke diplomatic ties and stopped military cooperation.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war crimes in Gaza have lost Israel a close ally and the breakup is now near complete. Petro published an opinion article in The Guardian last week on why Colombia had decided to break ties with Israel, in which he said his country had a “duty to stand up to Israel.” Without such decisive action, the president said, the world risked “stripping the global legal order of its remaining protections.” For more than 600 days, Netanyahu had led “a campaign of devastation in Gaza, the escalation of regional conflict, and a reckless abandonment of international law at large,” Petro said.

The UN has declared Gaza the “hungriest place on Earth,” and said its mission to send aid was “one of the most obstructed … in recent history.” The Hague emergency conference next week is an effort to bring about collective action to counter Israel’s accelerated steps to isolate and starve Palestinians in Gaza into submission and kill as many of them as possible to push the rest to leave.

Last September, Colombia voted with the majority at the UN to censure Israel and set a deadline of 12 months for it to “bring to an end without delay its unlawful presence” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Bogota then began a series of concrete actions to implement the UN resolution, by conducting investigations and prosecutions regarding Israel-connected activities in the country: it applied sanctions and asset freezes against Israeli interests, stopped imports from Israel, especially arms, and stopped coal exports to Israel.

Petro said that without such decisive action, “we risk turning the multilateral system into a talking shop, stripping the legal order of its remaining protections for small, developing and less privileged nations – from west Asia to right here in Latin America,” who rely on the protections provided by international law and multilateral organizations.

Colombia has stepped up to the challenge and Petro did not mince words. “The choice before us is stark and unforgiving. We can either stand firm in defense of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics,” he said.

Colombia’s brave stand is in sharp contrast with many states that have failed to implement this UN resolution, or other similar international sanctions, allowing economic or other calculations to override their moral duties. For some states, fear of reprisals from Israel and its ally the US has played a key role in that failure.

Colombia’s position marks a seismic shift among Latin American countries, which in the past supported Israel. They played a decisive role in supporting the 1947 UN partition plan that led to the establishment of Israel, with 13 of them voting in favor. Streets in Jerusalem, such as Guatemala Street, Brazil Street, Costa Rica Street and Mexico Street, are named after these countries in recognition of that role.

But the Gaza war is changing that. Now most counties in South and Latin America vote at the UN with the majority of nations in support of Palestinian rights, and recognize the state of Palestine. In addition to Colombia, Chile has also joined South Africa’s genocide case. Brazil, Colombia, Chile and others have recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv and strongly condemned Israeli actions. In 2023, Belize and Bolivia severed diplomatic relations with Israel. However, Israel still has friends there, such as Argentina under the current rightist government, Guatemala, Panama and several others.

The longer Israel continues its onslaught on Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the more it blatantly breaks international law and rejects initiatives to deescalate, the more Latin and South American nations are breaking their historical ties with Tel Aviv, despite the heavy price they may have to pay. Colombia is a perfect example of a friend-turned-foe as a result of Israeli intransigence.

* Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation. The views expressed here are personal and do not necessarily represent those of the GCC. X: @abuhamad1