After banning coal exports to Israel, Colombian President: They are killing Gaza children with it

Colombia – Colombian President Gustavo Petro commented on Sunday on his country’s issuance of a decree banning the export of coal to Israel, saying that the latter “makes bombs with it to kill the children of Gaza.”

This came in a post he made on the X platform, in which he republished news from the local radio station “Blue Radio Colombia”, which included a picture of the decree dating back to August 14.

“With Colombian coal, they make bombs to kill Palestinian children,” Petro said in his post.

The radio reported in its news on its website that President Petro, Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo, and the Ministers of Finance, Mines and Trade signed Decree No. 1047 dated August 14, 2024.

She pointed out that according to the signed document, the decree will be implemented 5 days after its publication in the Official Gazette, and she expected it to enter into force next Thursday.

According to the radio, “The decree signed by the president confirms the ban on coal exports to Israel as a result of its brutal war (on Gaza) and the severing of Colombian diplomatic relations with it.”

Last June, Petro announced that Colombia would halt coal exports to Israel until it stopped the “genocide” against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Last May, Petro announced the severing of diplomatic relations between Colombia and Israel, accusing the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing genocide against the Palestinians.

Petro also stopped buying Israeli-made weapons, and Netanyahu accused him of being “anti-Semitic and a supporter of the Palestinian factions movement.”

It is noteworthy that according to the American Journal of Transportation, Israel relies on coal to generate 20 percent of its electrical energy.

Colombia is the largest supplier of coal to Israel, accounting for more than half of its imports, and the value of these exports was estimated at about $450 million last year, according to the American Bloomberg Agency.

Anatolia