President of Colombia Gustavo Petro met today with Palestinian and Jewish community leaders to discuss peace and human rights. The meeting focused on recognizing the Petro administration’s diplomatic efforts over the past years in support of Palestine and the Palestinian people.
Once Israel’s firmest ally in Latin America, Colombia has made a 180-degree shift under Gustavo Petro, who has openly criticized Israeli policies toward Palestine and its military intervention in Gaza. His stance has drawn global criticism from Israel’s supporters, both Jewish and non-Jewish, while earning praise from pro-Palestinian advocates, including Arabs, Muslims, and others.
Petro meets with Palestinian Leaders in Colombia
During the ceremony at the presidential palace, Gustavo Petro received several prestigious gifts from the Palestinian community. Suhel Turjman, a key leader of the Palestinian diaspora in Latin America, presented him with a relief painting of Simón Bolívar, carved in mother-of-pearl—an ancestral technique from Bethlehem that involves inlaying pieces of mother-of-pearl into wood to create geometric, floral, and calligraphic patterns.
The piece is a symbol of resistance and has previously been awarded to heads of state such as Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Pope Francis, and the Emir of Qatar.
📸 El Presidente @petrogustavo y la Ministra de @mincultura, @KadamaniYannai, se reunieron en la @Casa_Narino con la diáspora palestina y comunidades de fe progresistas.
En este espacio, reconocieron el trabajo del #GobiernoDelCambio en defensa de los derechos del pueblo… pic.twitter.com/1Sw4rxwkwZ
— Presidencia Colombia 🇨🇴 (@infopresidencia) April 2, 2025
Additionally, Ricardo Mohrez, president of the Latin American Palestinian Union (UPAL), along with the Colombo-Palestinian Cultural Foundation, honored Culture Minister Yannai Kadamani with the Jerusalem Artisan Cross, one of the symbols of Palestinian Christians.
Petro meets anti-Israel Jewish leaders
The ceremony was also attended by high-ranking members of the U.S. Orthodox Jewish community. Rabbi Yisroel Weiss and the organization Neturei Karta expressed their support for President Petro’s position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, wearing keffiyehs adorned with the Palestinian flag.
While Israel remains a highly criticized and politically contested state, it also faces strong opposition from within the Jewish community itself. Orthodox Jews, in particular, have historically been fierce opponents of Zionism, with some rabbis even denying the legitimacy of a Jewish state.
According to their interpretation, since Jews were exiled by divine decree, only God and the Messiah can restore their homeland. They see the modern State of Israel as a man-made attempt to circumvent God’s will.
Their argument specifically invokes passages from the Talmud, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, which states that Jews cannot return to and reclaim the Land of Israel by force—thus, in their view, making Israel’s actions “illegitimate” in religious terms.