Colombia suspends coal sales to Israel because of Gaza war

Colombia is Israel’s main coal supplier, with exports worth around $450 million in 2023, according to the Israeli embassy in Bogotá, which remains operational despite the severance of diplomatic relations between Petro and the government in May.

Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president and a fierce critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on X on Saturday that coal exports to Israel would be suspended “until the genocide stops.”

A government decree stated that the restrictions would remain in place “until the interim measures of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) … are fully complied with.”

At the end of May, in a case brought by South Africa, the ICJ ordered Israel to halt its offensive on the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. At the same time, it demanded the release of the hostages and the “unhindered delivery” of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.

According to the Colombian government, the coal export ban will come into force five days after the decree is published in the Official Gazette and will not affect goods whose shipment has already been authorized.

Bogota emphasized the role of coal as a “strategic resource for the production of weapons, the mobilization of troops and the production of provisions for military operations.”

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Petro also said Colombia would stop buying weapons from Israel, one of the main suppliers to the South American country’s security forces.

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 coal exports,” the organization said in a statement. A ban on supplies would endanger “confidence in the markets and foreign investment.”

Petro announced that Colombia would break off relations with Israel in May because of the Gaza conflict and open an embassy in Ramallah in the Palestinian territories.

The Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war left 1,194 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area, at least 36,801 people, again mostly civilians, were killed in Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza.