Colombia unveils new rifle to replace Israeli Galil after cutting ties with Israel

Colombia has unveiled its first domestically produced military rifle, a weapon officials say is cheaper and at least 15% lighter than the rifles its security forces have used for decades. The move marks a shift away from arms long supplied by Israel, with which Colombia cut ties last year.

President Gustavo Petro, a former leftist guerrilla fighter who took office in 2022, announced in 2023 that Colombia was breaking relations with Israel, accusing it of committing genocide in Gaza. Since the start of the war in Gaza, Petro has compared Israeli military actions to Nazi crimes and the Holocaust, and he has pledged to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The new rifle is being manufactured by the state-owned arms company Indumil, which has been tasked with producing 400,000 weapons over five years to gradually replace existing stock. Colombia’s military has relied on Israeli-made Galil rifles since the 1990s, assembled locally from Israeli-supplied parts. The Galil, developed by Israel Military Industries in the 1970s from the Finnish RK 62, itself based on the AK-47, served for decades as a standard-issue rifle for Israeli forces and police.

Indumil says the new weapon is 15% to 20% lighter than the Galil. But defense experts question whether Colombia can meet full-scale production goals without significant costs.

Petro has widened his stance against international arms purchases. In addition to halting contracts with Israel, he recently froze weapons deals with the United States after former President Donald Trump removed Colombia from Washington’s list of allies in the war on drugs.

President Gustavo Petro

(Photo: REUTERS / Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)

Petro has used increasingly harsh rhetoric toward Israel, at one point writing that “the killing of 5,300 Palestinian boys and girls is Nazism” and declaring, “They say Israelis are not Nazis, but they are.”

During last month’s United Nations General Assembly in New York, Petro joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration, where he called for the creation of a “large army to liberate Palestine” stronger than the U.S. military. He also urged American soldiers to refuse orders, prompting the U.S. to revoke his visa.