Israel’s largest coal supplier Colombia stops exports due to Gaza war

Petro wrote on the social media platform X on Saturday that coal exports would not resume until “the genocide” in Gaza ends. Petro also published a draft decree saying that coal exports would only resume if Israel complied with a recent International Court of Justice order requiring Israel to withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip.

According to Colombia’s statistics office, coal exports to Israel totaled over $320 million in the first eight months of last year, a small fraction of the country’s total coal exports, which were valued at over $9 billion in 2023.

According to the American Journal for Transportation, Israel imports more than 50 percent of its coal from Colombia and uses much of it to fuel its power plants.

Both governments continue to maintain consulates on each other’s territory and engage in trade.

Colombia has long depended on Israel for military equipment such as assault rifles and reconnaissance gear. The South American country has also bought more than 30 fighter jets from Israel over the past thirty years and relies on Israeli companies to maintain them.

However, new arms purchases have been halted as relations between the two countries deteriorate. Critics of Petro have said the president’s decision to sever ties with Israel threatens Colombia’s security as its military battles drug cartels and rebel groups in rural areas of the country.

On Thursday, the Colombian mining association expressed concern about a possible suspension of exports, citing a trade agreement between the two countries that has been in place since 2020.

“Israel is an important destination for Colombia’s thermal coal exports,” the organization said in a statement. A ban on supplies would endanger “confidence in the markets and foreign investment.”

Others, however, welcomed Petro’s latest move against Israel. The Global Energy Embargo for Palestine, an advocacy group trying to persuade countries around the world to halt their coal and oil exports to Israel, said in a statement on Saturday that Colombia’s decision could put pressure on Israel to change its policy in the Gaza Strip.

Unlike previous Colombian presidents who maintained close ties with Israel, Petro was an outspoken critic of the Middle Eastern state and initially refused to condemn the Hamas attack that preceded the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse