The National Liberation Army (ELN) issued a statement on Monday (26) supporting the statements made by the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, after the president classified Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as “genocide”. According to the Colombian armed group, the government should break diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv.
On his social networks, Petro expressed “full solidarity” with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Brazilian compared the massacre carried out by Israeli military forces against the Palestinians to the genocide carried out by Adolf Hitler against the Jews in the Second World War. Petro also said that what is happening in Gaza right now is a genocide, with the deaths of children, women and elderly civilians.
In the ELN document, the group states that Israel has been promoting a “policy of annihilation of Palestine” since 1948 with the support of the United States and Europe. The group supported the Colombian government’s stance, but said that relations with Israel “should have already been terminated”.
“Breaking with a genocidal State is an elementary duty and that is why there are countries that have already done it; in the same way that cooperation agreements must be broken immediately in all areas; in absolutely all areas, including the military and commercial fields, to try to isolate and morally sanction this policy, as is already being proposed in many parts of the world”, says the document.
The group also recalls the accusations made by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), stating that Israel’s actions are “more extreme” than apartheid. The ELN also called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and compared the actions of the State of Israel in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust.
“Paradoxically, just 80 years ago, this is how the Nazis considered themselves: superior, which is why they sought to exterminate Jews and other people they considered trash,” the text states.
At the end of the document, the ELN said that, if Colombia does not break relations with Israel, the government’s speech about “human dignity” will only be “rhetoric”.
Resumption of negotiations
The ELN delegation at the peace dialogues also announced that it will resume dialogues with the government from April 8. Negotiations with the Colombian government have been frozen since February 20th. The group stated that the process was in an “open crisis” and even called its delegation for consultations.
In a statement, the ELN stated that it will continue with what was agreed in the last cycle of debates in Cuba and that it will prepare for the next cycle of debates that will be in April, in Venezuela. Even so, the delegation maintained the call for internal consultations within the group.
Editing: Lucas Estanislau
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
