{"id":580663,"date":"2026-08-10T19:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/580663\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T19:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:16:16","slug":"colombia-recognizes-israeli-sovereignty-over-golan-heights-in-sharp-break-from-petro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/580663\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia recognizes Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights in sharp break from Petro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colombia on Monday recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, becoming one of the few countries to do so as newly inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella moves rapidly to reverse the policies of his predecessor, Gustavo Petro, and rebuild Colombia\u2019s once-close relationship with Israel.<\/p>\n

\"\u05d0\u05d9\u05e9<\/a>\"\u05d0\u05d9\u05e9<\/p>\n

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella <\/p>\n

(Photo: JOAQUIN SARMIENTO \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

It followed a visit to Colombia by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar, who attended De la Espriella\u2019s inauguration and met with the new president in Barranquilla on Thursday, a day before he formally took office.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the persistent regional instability in the Middle East and considering the strategic importance of the Golan Heights to Israel\u2019s security, the government of Colombia recognizes Israel\u2019s sovereignty over this territory, as well as the state\u2019s right to defend itself against external threats,\u201d the Colombian government said in its announcement Monday.<\/p>\n

Colombia said Israel had faced persistent security threats along its borders for decades and said those threats had intensified significantly in recent years, culminating in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this regional security context, Colombia recognizes that maintaining Israeli control and sovereignty over the Golan Heights constitutes an essential component of its national security and its ability to defend its citizens and safeguard their security,\u201d the government said.<\/p>\n

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and extended Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration to the territory in 1981. Most of the international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau.<\/p>\n

The United States broke with that international consensus in 2019, when President Donald Trump formally recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel. Colombia\u2019s decision puts De la Espriella\u2019s government alongside Washington on an issue of major diplomatic importance to Israel.<\/p>\n

Sa\u2019ar thanked De la Espriella for what he called a \u201chistoric decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank Colombia and my good friend, the President of Colombia, Abelardo De La Espriella, for his historic decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights,\u201d Sa\u2019ar said in an X post, noting that the decision followed their meeting Thursday.<\/p>\n

He also thanked Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar for his friendship and cooperation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael is a small country without strategic depth,\u201d Sa\u2019ar said. \u201cHaving defensible borders is essential for Israel in order to guarantee the existence of the Jewish people in its historic homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sa\u2019ar said he would continue working to persuade additional countries to join the United States and Colombia in recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, where Israel extended its law 45 years ago.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s announcement is the latest and perhaps most symbolically significant sign of a dramatic transformation in relations between Israel and Colombia since De la Espriella succeeded Petro.<\/p>\n

For decades, Colombia was among Israel\u2019s closest partners in Latin America, with extensive security, military, intelligence and commercial ties. Relations deteriorated sharply under Petro, Colombia\u2019s first leftist president, who became one of Israel\u2019s most outspoken international critics following the outbreak of the Gaza war.<\/p>\n

\"\u05e0\u05e9\u05d9\u05d0<\/a>\"\u05e0\u05e9\u05d9\u05d0<\/p>\n

Gustavo Petro <\/p>\n

(Photo: REUTERS \/ Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)<\/p>\n

Petro also ordered the establishment of a Colombian diplomatic mission in Ramallah and repeatedly condemned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The rupture represented an extraordinary reversal for two countries that had previously maintained particularly close defense and intelligence ties.<\/p>\n

De la Espriella has taken Colombia in almost precisely the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

Even before taking office, he announced plans to restore what he called Colombia\u2019s \u201chistoric alliance\u201d with Israel, halt plans for an embassy in Ramallah and move Colombia\u2019s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

His government and Israel have also agreed to fully and immediately restore diplomatic relations and appoint ambassadors, work toward eliminating visa requirements for travel between the two countries and revive their free trade relationship.<\/p>\n

Colombia is also withdrawing its support for South Africa\u2019s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and leaving the Hague Group, a coalition of countries established to coordinate diplomatic and legal pressure on Israel over the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The two governments have additionally agreed to deepen political, security and economic cooperation, according to Israeli officials.<\/p>\n

The shift effectively dismantles much of Petro\u2019s Israel policy within days of his departure from office.<\/p>\n

De la Espriella, 48, was inaugurated Friday in Cali after a rapid and unconventional rise from celebrity lawyer and businessman to the presidency.<\/p>\n

A political newcomer nicknamed \u201cThe Tiger\u201d by supporters, De la Espriella built his campaign around a hard-line approach to crime and drug trafficking, economic liberalization, conservative social policies and opposition to Petro\u2019s political legacy.<\/p>\n

He founded the Defensores de la Patria, or Defenders of the Homeland, movement less than a year before the election and emerged as the principal standard-bearer of Colombia\u2019s nationalist right.<\/p>\n

De la Espriella narrowly defeated leftist Sen. Iv\u00e1n Cepeda, the candidate aligned with Petro\u2019s political movement, in the June presidential runoff. His victory ended four years of national government by Colombia\u2019s left and placed the country within a broader rightward political trend in parts of Latin America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before entering electoral politics, De la Espriella was one of Colombia\u2019s best-known criminal lawyers and a wealthy businessman. His legal career included representing prominent and sometimes controversial clients, and he entered politics without having previously held elected office.<\/p>\n

During the campaign, he presented himself as an anti-establishment figure who could restore public security, revive private investment and confront Colombia\u2019s armed groups and drug-trafficking organizations more aggressively.<\/p>\n

His inaugural address Friday underscored the scale of the change he intends to make. De la Espriella pledged a major crackdown on drug trafficking and illegal armed organizations, a reduction in the size of the Colombian state and measures to revive the country\u2019s oil and gas industries. He has also signaled an end to Petro\u2019s approach of seeking negotiations with multiple armed groups.<\/p>\n

Foreign policy, particularly relations with the United States and Israel, has emerged as another area in which the new president intends to make a rapid break with Petro.<\/p>\n

De la Espriella has cultivated close ties with Israel and aligned himself politically with the Trump administration in Washington. His decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights only days after taking office gives concrete expression to that shift.<\/p>\n

The change is especially striking because Petro had spent much of his presidency moving Colombia toward some of the strongest anti-Israel positions adopted by a Latin American government.<\/p>\n

While Petro sought closer diplomatic relations with the Palestinians and used international institutions to increase pressure on Israel, De la Espriella has made restoring ties with Jerusalem one of his first foreign policy priorities.<\/p>\n

Plans to move the Colombian Embassy to Jerusalem would represent another significant diplomatic gesture.<\/p>\n

Most countries maintain their embassies in the Tel Aviv area because of the unresolved international status of Jerusalem. Israel considers Jerusalem its capital. The United States moved its embassy there in 2018 during Trump\u2019s first administration, and a small number of other countries have followed.<\/p>\n

De la Espriella confirmed before taking office that Colombia would join them.<\/p>\n

His government has also suspended Petro-era plans for an embassy in Ramallah, though Colombia is not expected to withdraw its recognition of a Palestinian state. Colombia formally recognized Palestine in 2018, before Petro took office.<\/p>\n

Taken together, the restoration of diplomatic ties, planned Jerusalem embassy, renewed trade and security cooperation, withdrawal from international initiatives against Israel and recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights amount to one of the fastest foreign policy reversals undertaken by the new Colombian government.<\/p>\n

The rapprochement also forms part of a broader Israeli effort to strengthen relations with Latin America.<\/p>\n

Sa\u2019ar has designated 2026 as a year of strategic focus on Latin America for the Foreign Ministry. Before traveling to Colombia, he visited Ecuador, the first official visit there by an Israeli foreign minister in 44 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colombia on Monday recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, becoming one of the few countries to do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-580663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}