By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The Colombian president strongly denounced the silence of the media and denies US allegations of antisemitism.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro condemned on Sunday the silence of the media over Israel’s nearly one-year war on Gaza stressing that a genocide is happening in the occupied Palestinian territories, Anadolu news agency reported.  

“Anyone who defends this genocide or remains silent in the face of it has destroyed their own human condition,” Petro wrote on X.

The Colombian president criticized the deafening silence of the media concerning unfolding events in the occupied Palestinian territories.  

Este fue su pronunciamiento
👉 https://t.co/18B07ZneMS pic.twitter.com/SFpnhkAwFm

— El Espectador (@elespectador) September 21, 2024

“It would seem as if (Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels) is the one who directs the world’s communications so that tens of thousands of journalists are silenced in the face of their murdered colleagues and 20,000 babies torn to pieces by bombs,” he stressed.

Within this framework, Petro condemned as well Israel’s raid early Sunday on the Al-Jazeera office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, in which the Israeli occupation soldiers handed an order to shut down the bureau for 45 days.

‘New Holocaust’

The Colombian president’s statement on X came a day following criticism by Deborah Lipstadt, the United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, in which she questioned Petro’s denunciation of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

“President Gustavo Petro’s continued rhetoric normalizes anti-Semitism. We cannot accept it. We cannot tolerate it. We must condemn these harmful narratives,” Lipstadt wrote in a message published on social media on the account of the US Embassy in Bogota.

Si Israel no desocupa Gaza. La ONU debe organizar una fuerza de Paz. pic.twitter.com/B0tHCWqeT8

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 20, 2024

The Colombian president was quick to respond to Lipstadt’s criticism pointing out that a new holocaust is in the making in Gaza.

“Madam Ambassador, Palestinians are Semites… It is anti-Semitic to kill children by dropping bombs in Gaza and not to oppose it. The most anti-Semitic thing today is to repeat Hitler’s holocaust on humanity and especially on the Palestinian people,” he said.

He utterly denied the US’ diplomat’s allegations of antisemitism.

“I am not an anti-Semite. Do not confuse and respect. I am not anti-Jewish. I believe in freedom of religion, and if I had been born in that era, I would have given my life in the armed resistance against the Nazis,” he said.

“But I do believe in the freedom that international law generates, the freedom that was built after Hitler was defeated by the Americans and Soviets and by all the peoples of the world: humanity,” the Colombian concluded.

Boycotting Israel

Colombian President Gustavo Petro signed August 18 a presidential decree to ban coal exports to Israel.

The Colombian president said upon signing the decree that the ban comes to exert pressure on the government of Israel to end its war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

‘Used to Kill Children’ – Colombia Bans Coal Exports to Israel

The decree dates to August 14 and will come into effect next week, according to the American news website Bloomberg reported.

Gustav commented on the ban in a post on his X account saying that the “Colombian coal is used to manufacture bombs that kill Palestinian children.”

A few days later, the Colombian President urged all ships’ crews to halt the transport of coal to Israel.

“May all the sailors of the world, may all our indigenous peoples refuse to bring coal from any country to Netanyahu,” Petro wrote on his X account, in reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

(Anadolu, PC)