Politics & Diplomacy
Colombia quits the ICJ genocide case and recognises Israeli Golan sovereignty
Graphic: Times of Palestine
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Colombia's new government recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights on Monday, three days after President Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.
The Colombian statement said that given the continuing instability of the region, and the strategic importance of the Golan to Israel's security, "the government of Colombia recognises Israel's sovereignty over this territory, as well as the state's right to defend itself".
Israel took the Golan from Syria in 1967 and applied its law there in 1981. The Security Council called that step null and void in resolution 497, and until Monday only the United States, which acted in 2019, had recognised it.
For Palestinian readers the heavier part of the announcement sits beside it. Bogotá is withdrawing the intervention it filed in support of South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and leaving the Hague Group, the bloc it helped South Africa found to coordinate legal and diplomatic pressure over Gaza.
Colombia is also restoring full relations and exchanging ambassadors, moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, dropping visa requirements and reviving the free-trade agreement. The embassy in Ramallah that Gustavo Petro's government had planned is shelved.
Petro severed relations with Israel in May 2024 over the conduct of the Gaza war, and his successor has undone that record within his first week.
Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, called the recognition a historic decision, thanked his Colombian counterpart as a good friend, and said Israel would work to bring other states to the same position.
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