President of Colombia Gustavo Petro has announced an emergency conference on Gaza, to be held in Bogota. The announcement was made through an opinion piece published in the British newspaper The Guardian.
From the beginning of the conflict, Petro has been among the world’s most outspoken critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. His stance has led to a diplomatic rupture, following mutual accusations of “genocide” and “antisemitism.”
In the aftermath of the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel—which left around 1,200 people dead—the response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has resulted in more than 55,000 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and has left the Gaza Strip almost entirely destroyed.
Petro announces conference on Gaza in Bogota, Colombia
Gustavo Petro announced this Tuesday morning, through the pages of the British newspaper The Guardian, an emergency conference on Gaza in Bogotá, scheduled for the July 15.
“Governments like mine have a duty to confront Israel. Too many have failed. Without decisive action, we risk stripping the world legal order of its remaining protections for less privileged nations,” reads the headline and summary of the text.
President Gustavo Petro called for a meeting next week, scheduled for Tuesday, July 15, in Bogota, referencing the conference of the co-chairs of The Hague Group, led by South Africa.
“The co-chairs of The Hague Group will convene an emergency conference on Gaza, urging ministers from around the world to deliberate on a multilateral defense of international law. Our goal is simple: to introduce concrete legal, diplomatic, and economic measures that can stop Israel’s destruction and uphold the fundamental principle that no State is above the law,” stated Gustavo Petro in his writing.
Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs subsequently confirmed that the country and “South Africa, in its capacity as co-chair of The Hague Group, will host an emergency ministerial meeting on Palestine, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bogotá, on July 15 and 16, 2025.”
Petro had already announced this summit last June and, through the article in the British newspaper, called for international participation and involvement in bringing an end to the violence in Palestine.
President Petro’s accusations against Benjamin Netanyahu
In the article, the Colombian president asserts that the world has witnessed the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “direct a campaign of devastation in Gaza, escalate the regional conflict, and recklessly abandon international law. Governments like mine cannot afford to remain passive.”
He also recalled that in September 2024, when the United Nations General Assembly resolution on Israel’s practices in Palestinian territory was voted on, “‘we assumed concrete obligations: investigations, prosecutions, sanctions, asset freezes, and cessation of imports and weapons.'”
The President of Colombia stated that a 12-month deadline was set at that time for the Middle Eastern country “to end without delay its illegal presence” in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“Meanwhile, however, too many States have allowed strategic calculations to override our duty. While we may face threats of retaliation when defending international law—as South Africa discovered when the United States retaliated against its case at the International Court of Justice—the consequences of abdicating our responsibilities will be grave. If we do not act now, we will not only betray the Palestinian people but also become complicit in the atrocities committed by the Netanyahu government,” he stated.
Petro proposes actions to force Israel to negotiate peace
In his writing, the Colombian president highlighted actions by several governments to take measures against Israel, noting that Colombia suspended coal exports to Israel.
“South Africa, for its part, has taken Israel to the world’s highest court. And Malaysia has banned all Israeli-flagged cargo ships from docking in its ports. Without such decisive action, we risk turning the multilateral system into a talk shop, stripping the legal order of its remaining protections for small, developing, and less privileged nations—from West Asia to here in Latin America,” expressed Gustavo Petro.
“In this grave humanitarian context, the Bogotá emergency conference calls on States to move from condemnation to collective action. By severing our ties of complicity—through the courts, ports, and factories of our countries—we can challenge the vision of Donald Trump and Netanyahu of a world where ‘power makes right,'” he added.
The Colombian president maintained, finally, that the invitation to the Bogotá conference “is open and urgent,” asserting that the indefinite postponement of the International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, proposed by the United Nations and co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, “has left a critical vacuum in multilateral leadership, precisely when it is most needed.”
Petro concludes his article by stating that “the Palestinian people deserve justice. The moment demands courage. History will judge us harshly if we do not answer its call.”