Colombia will stop the sale of coal to Israel to seek an end to the war in Gaza

June 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Government of Colombia has decided to paralyze coal exports to Israel in an attempt to pressure the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the conflict in Gaza, according to a decree published this Friday by the Colombian Ministry of Commerce.

The measure, also supported by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance and Energy, will come into force once it is signed by the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who is currently in Europe to participate in the peace conference on Ukraine that will take place. next week in Switzerland.

This decision could significantly affect trade relations between the two States, taking into account that the Andean country is Israel’s largest supplier of fossil fuel. According to the Bloomberg news agency, Colombia supplied the Jewish State with about 450 million dollars (415 million euros) of coal last year.

The Colombian Mining Association has reacted to this decree, warning of the “serious impacts” that its application will have on the sector. “These types of measures must weigh the economic and social implications for the country and the regions. Israel is a key destination for Colombia’s thermal coal exports, representing 650 billion dollars in taxes, royalties and contributions (just over 600.2 billion of euros) each year,” he said in a statement published on the social network X.

This news comes after, at the beginning of last May, the Colombian Government broke diplomatic relations with Israel in retaliation for its offensive against the Gaza Strip, where more than 36,700 Palestinians have already died. An action, launched by the Israeli Army in response to the October 7 attacks perpetrated by Hamas, which Petro has described as “genocide.”

The decision represents the first trade sanction against Israel by a Latin American government, where the measures implemented so far have been diplomatic in nature.

At the beginning of last month, the Government of Turkey led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the interruption of all commercial relations with Israel, due to “aggression against Palestine in violation of International Law and Human Rights.”