{"id":624578,"date":"2026-09-23T04:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T04:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/624578\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T04:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T04:44:30","slug":"colombia-withdraws-from-south-africas-icj-lawsuit-against-israel-court-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/624578\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia withdraws from South Africa\u2019s ICJ lawsuit against Israel, court says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">In a statement, the ICJ said Colombia informed the Court that it had decided to withdraw the Declaration of intervention that it had filed under Article 63 of the Statute of the Court on 5 April 2024 in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Colombia&#8217;s Foreign Ministry then confirmed the withdrawal, but said the decision does not change Colombia\u2019s status as a State Party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, nor does it affect the validity, scope or binding force of the international obligations assumed under that instrument.<\/p>\n<p>\u200eIsrael&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/article-909187\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Foreign Minister Gideon Sa&#8217;ar<\/a> already mentioned the matter on Friday, thanking new Colombian President \u200eAbelardo De la Espriella for the &#8220;withdrawal from South Africa&#8217;s false and malicious lawsuit against Israel at the ICJ, which was made during the antisemitic Petro era.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Sa&#8217;ar also said he had discussed the matter during a July meeting with his counterpart Omar Bula Escobar in Washington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;The friendship between Israel and Colombia is stronger than ever,&#8221; Sa&#8217;ar said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Israeli ambassador to Colombia Vivien Aisen echoed the remarks, saying Colombia chose &#8220;the right side of history&#8221; and made &#8220;a brave and responsible decision that we deeply appreciate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The move comes as part of a wider effort by the administration of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/article-905358\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">President Abelardo De la Espriella<\/a> to undo some of the hostilities of the previous president, and restore ties with Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">After being sworn in at the start of August 2026, de la Espriella announced the immediate resumption of full diplomatic relations with Israel, underlined by a landmark commitment to move the Colombian Embassy to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Colombia also recognized Israel&#8217;s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">South Africa\u2019s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has not officially issued a public statement responding to Colombia&#8217;s formal withdrawal, but has previously said that it would not cause South Africa to drop its legal challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement, the ICJ said Colombia informed the Court that it had decided to withdraw the Declaration&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4646,50,69,60,1901,59386,85,45416,46,43,2200,9517],"class_list":["post-624578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-colombia","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-strip","tag-gaza-war","tag-genocide","tag-icj","tag-il","tag-international-court-of-justice","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-palestinians","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624578","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=624578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}