2024-02-21 00:24:08
20/02/2024
This Wednesday, February 21, a delegation from the Government of Colombia is scheduled to intervene before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague in the midst of the process being carried out against Israel for the occupation of Palestine.
The appearance of the Petro government before the highest judicial body of the UN will take place around 10:00 in the morning (local time in the Netherlands) and Colombia is expected to present an advisory opinion there on the legal consequences derived from “ Israel’s practices and policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”
The Colombian delegation will be led by the coordinator of the Issues Group before the International Court of Justice of the Chancellery, Andrea Jiménez Herrera, who will deliver the oral intervention, and the ambassador of Colombia in the Netherlands, Carolina Olarte Bácares.
More than 50 States and international organizations, including Colombia, are expected to participate in the hearings that begin this Wednesday and will conclude next Monday, February 26.
“This process is independent of the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice on December 29, 2023, regarding the violation of provisions of the 1948 Genocide Convention by that country,” he explained. the Colombian government, which last January declared itself willing to accompany this judicial action through resources and procedural tools provided by the Statute and the practice of the Court.
South Africa then filed an appeal with the UN high court, accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza. The judges, who at the moment did not rule on the existence of a genocide, demanded that the Hebrew State “take all measures” to “prevent” acts contemplated by the Convention for the Prevention of Genocide.
Just that Tuesday, President Gustavo Petro expressed his “comprehensive solidarity” with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, embroiled in a diplomatic crisis with Israel for comparing the war in Gaza with the Holocaust.
“In Gaza there is a genocide and thousands of children, women and elderly civilians are cowardly murdered. “Lula has only told the truth and the truth is defended or barbarism will annihilate us,” Petro wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “I express my complete solidarity with the president of Brazil,” added the president.
On Sunday, the Brazilian president accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and compared the Israeli offensive to the extermination of Jews by the Nazis. In response, Israel declared him “persona non grata” and Brazil recalled its ambassador in that country for consultations.
The war was triggered by the attack by the Islamist movement Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, which left some 1,160 dead, mostly civilians. Palestinian fighters also took 250 people hostage, of whom 130 remain kidnapped in Gaza, including 30 who reportedly died in captivity.
In retaliation, Israel launched an offensive to “annihilate” Hamas, resulting in at least 29,195 deaths, mostly women and children.
Petro, who accepted a request from the Israeli government in January to mediate the release of the hostages held by Hamas, called on Latin American countries to “unite to immediately stop the violence in Palestine.”
At the end of 2022, the president of Colombia also compared the actions of the Israeli army in Gaza with those of the Nazis, unleashing a diplomatic crisis that resulted in a meeting with the Israeli ambassador in Bogotá.
Brazil and Colombia support the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the alleged violation of the 1948 Convention against Genocide.
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