Colombia deepens ties with Israel, considers Holocaust alliance membership after embassy opening

As Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar affixed a mezuzah to the entrance of Colombia’s new embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the two countries were exploring another step in their rapidly improving relationship. Colombia is considering applying to join the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Israeli Ambassador to Colombia Vivian Aisen revealed to The Media Line.

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Aisen said Sa’ar and Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar discussed the possibility during Bula’s visit to Jerusalem. Colombia adopted the IHRA working definition of antisemitism in June 2022, but it is not currently a member or observer country. No formal application has been announced.

The alliance promotes Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. Countries seeking full membership must first obtain observer status and then proceed through an intermediate liaison stage.

Colombia inaugurated its Jerusalem embassy on October 14, becoming the 10th country with an embassy in the city, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and the fourth Latin American country to do so, following Guatemala, Honduras, and Paraguay.

The opening was the most visible part of a broader diplomatic reversal under Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, whose government has restored full relations with Israel, lifted reciprocal visa requirements, removed restrictions on coal exports, and renewed implementation of the countries’ free trade agreement.

At a Foreign Ministry reception later Wednesday, attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bula announced that Colombia had formally requested to withdraw from the Hague Group, a coalition established to coordinate diplomatic and legal measures against Israel over the war in Gaza. He also announced plans for a national initiative to combat antisemitism.

The embassy opening fulfilled a promise made before de la Espriella’s election. Sa’ar said the two met in Buenos Aires in November 2025, when the future president pledged to relocate Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem if elected.

“He made a promise, and he kept it,” Sa’ar said. “Just two months after he took office, we inaugurated the Embassy of Colombia in Jerusalem.”

The embassy occupies a stone building dating to 1920. The inauguration brought together Bula, Sa’ar, Colombian Ambassador to Israel Tania Gilinski Bacal, Aisen, and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.

Palestinian officials criticized the decision. Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh condemned the move, saying it disregarded international law and Jerusalem’s disputed status. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry also objected, describing the embassy opening as a violation of international law and relevant resolutions.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, while the Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Most countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv or nearby, arguing that Jerusalem’s final status should be determined through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

For Aisen, who arrived in Bogotá eight weeks ago, the initial assignment was to rebuild diplomatic ties after former Colombian President Gustavo Petro severed relations with Israel in May 2024 over the war in Gaza.

“We did not come with the intention of returning to what we were,” Aisen said. “We came to strengthen our relations and go much further.”

The countries have since restored their diplomatic representation, appointed ambassadors, and resumed practical cooperation. Reciprocal visa requirements ended on September 1, while Colombia lifted Petro’s prohibition on coal exports to Israel.

The free trade agreement required a more technical process. On October 13, the governments completed an exchange of diplomatic notes restoring the agreement, which originally took effect in August 2020.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry described the move as reversing Petro’s termination of the agreement. Aisen explained that the previous Colombian government had attempted to cancel the treaty but had not completed the country’s domestic procedure for withdrawing from an international agreement. The new government therefore needed to reactivate the existing accord rather than negotiate a replacement.

The renewed economic relationship builds on decades of commercial and security cooperation. Colombia has long used Israeli military equipment, and the governments are discussing expanded ties in cybersecurity, technology, agriculture, and other fields.

In a recorded message to Wednesday’s reception, de la Espriella described Israel as a friend and strategic partner. He identified security, intelligence, counterterrorism, organized crime, agriculture, science, innovation, and trade as priorities.

Colombia’s diplomatic realignment also extends to international institutions.

On September 18, Bogotá notified the International Court of Justice that it was withdrawing its declaration of intervention in South Africa’s case accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention during the Gaza war.

The court confirmed the withdrawal four days later. Colombia had intervened in April 2024 to submit its interpretation of the convention. Its withdrawal does not end South Africa’s case against Israel, which rejects the genocide allegations.

The court decision is separate from Colombia’s request to leave the Hague Group, which Bula announced at Wednesday’s reception.

“We reject that approach,” Bula said of the coalition.

He presented the request as another step toward restoring a relationship that began when Colombia recognized Israel in 1949 and established diplomatic ties in 1957.

Bula said Colombia’s Foreign Ministry would work with other government ministries and the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia to develop a national initiative against antisemitism.

The effort would also draw on advice from the US State Department’s Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, he said, while seeking Israeli participation.

During Wednesday’s reception, Bula criticized the previous administration for what he described as its failure to condemn terrorism clearly and accused it of contributing to “what may be the most virulent wave of antisemitism in Colombia’s recent history.”

“The government of President de la Espriella, this Foreign Ministry and this foreign minister will not remain silent,” Bula said. “We will not let this scourge go unchecked and unchallenged across the country.”

Aisen said attitudes toward Israel became increasingly polarized after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza. She said some anti-Israel rhetoric had drawn on longstanding antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“If you open my Twitter account, you will see comments that go back to medieval antisemitism,” she said.

One example she cited concerned Israel’s humanitarian response to Colombia’s devastating earthquake in August. Israel deployed approximately 80 rescue and medical personnel and sent additional medical equipment following the disaster.

Aisen said online allegations had circulated claiming that Israeli rescue personnel had come to Colombia to take children. She described the claims as an example of antisemitic conspiracy theories directed against Israel.

Her particular concern is that hostility toward the Israeli government can extend to Colombia’s Jewish population, with Jews held responsible for Israeli policies or actions.

“The Colombian Jewish community became guilty for everything that the State of Israel does,” she said. “That antisemitism has to be confronted.”

Yet Aisen said her personal experience in Colombia had been markedly different from the hostility she encountered online.

“I feel extremely welcome by everyone I meet, not only people in the government but also members of the general public,” she said. “They thank me for Israel being back in Colombia. They feel that Israel can contribute a great deal to the country and that those two lost years were regrettable.”

Marcos Peckel, executive director of the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia and commissioner to combat antisemitism at the Latin American Jewish Congress, attended both the embassy inauguration and Wednesday evening’s reception.

“For those of us who know the history of what this means, it gave us goosebumps,” Peckel told The Media Line. “It shows that President Abelardo de la Espriella is completely determined to take the relationship between Israel and Colombia to its highest level.”

Peckel, who has served on the World Jewish Congress Executive Committee since 2013, said Colombia’s population, regional influence, and history of commercial and security cooperation with Israel give the embassy decision considerable diplomatic weight.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Colombian cities on October 14 to protest de la Espriella’s domestic policies, with some also opposing his renewed partnership with Israel and closer ties to the United States.

Aisen acknowledged that Israel has become part of Colombia’s domestic political divide. The Jerusalem embassy, one of de la Espriella’s most visible foreign policy decisions, could become a target for his opponents, she said.

“As an Israeli, it hurts me to see that Israel became an issue that divides the public,” she said. “It should not be that way.”

Peckel believes cooperation in agriculture, water management, scientific research, trade, and other practical fields could make bilateral relations more resistant to political shifts. He wants partnerships with institutions and influential sectors of Colombian society that can endure beyond the current administration.

“These changes have to outlast governments,” Peckel said. “The challenge in Latin America is to create very strong roots with the people and with important sectors such as agriculture and water, so that if another government comes, it cannot simply undo what is being built.”