Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Saturday the upcoming suspension of coal exports from his country to Israel as long as the war in the Gaza Strip continues.
“We will suspend coal exports to Israel until it stops the genocide,” this left-wing leader wrote on the social network
He announced in May the severance of diplomatic relations with Israel and described the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “genocidal” in its conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip. He also put an end to the purchase of weapons manufactured by Israel, one of the main suppliers of the South American country’s security forces.
A decree from the Ministry of Trade and Industry specifies that the suspension of coal exports will apply “until the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice” (ICJ) are fully respected.
At the end of May, the highest court of the UN ordered the cessation of Israeli operations in the town of Rafah (southern Gaza Strip), the maintenance of the opening of the “Rafah terminal to allow unhindered supply » humanitarian aid, as well as the immediate release of hostages held in the besieged coastal territory.
The ICJ’s decisions are legally binding, but it lacks mechanisms to implement them.
According to the Colombian government, the suspension of coal sales will come into force five days after its publication in the Official Gazette and will not affect goods that have already been the subject of a transport authorization request.
Colombia was Israel’s leading coal supplier in 2023, with exports worth some $450 million, according to the Israeli embassy in Bogota.
The Colombian government stressed that this fossil fuel constitutes a “strategic resource for the manufacture of weapons, the mobilization of troops and the production of food for military operations”.
On Thursday, the Colombian Mining Association expressed fears over a possible suspension of coal exports.
“Israel is a key destination for Colombia’s thermal coal exports,” the representative organization said in a statement, adding that the move would jeopardize “confidence in foreign markets and investment.”
Elected in 2022 as the first left-wing president in the history of Colombia, Mr. Petro has strongly criticized, on several occasions, the war waged by Israel in the Gaza Strip after the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the south. from Israeli territory on October 7 which led to the death of 1,194 people, the majority of them civilians killed that day, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In retaliation, the Israeli army launched a deadly offensive in Gaza, where Hamas took power in 2007. At least 36,801 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed, according to data from the government’s Health Ministry. Gaza ruled by Hamas.
