OCTOBER 17, 2026 00:41

While Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar placed a mezuzah at the doorway of Colombia's fresh embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the nations examined another advance in their fast-improving bond. Colombia is mulling an application to enter the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Israeli Ambassador to Colombia Vivian Aisen disclosed to The Media Line.

For additional reports from The Media Line visit themedialine.org

Aisen noted that Sa'ar and Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar reviewed the option during Bula's trip to Jerusalem. Colombia endorsed the IHRA working definition of antisemitism in June 2022, yet it holds neither member nor observer status. No official bid has been made public.

The alliance advances Holocaust education, remembrance, and study. Nations aiming for full membership must first secure observer status before advancing through an intermediate liaison phase.

Colombia opened its Jerusalem embassy on October 14, becoming the tenth nation with an embassy there per Israel's Foreign Ministry, and the fourth Latin American country after Guatemala, Honduras, and Paraguay.

The launch formed the clearest sign of a wider diplomatic turnaround under Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, whose administration has revived full ties with Israel, ended mutual visa rules, eased limits on coal shipments, and restarted the nations' free trade pact.

At a Foreign Ministry event later Wednesday, joined by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bula stated that Colombia had formally sought to exit the Hague Group, a bloc formed to align diplomatic and legal steps against Israel regarding the Gaza conflict. He also revealed plans for a national effort to fight antisemitism.

Colombia's Jerusalem embassy marks diplomatic turnaround

The embassy launch fulfilled a pledge made ahead of de la Espriella's election. Sa'ar recalled their meeting in Buenos Aires in November 2025, when the incoming president vowed to move Colombia's embassy to Jerusalem if victorious.

"He gave his word, and he delivered," Sa'ar said. "Just two months after taking office, we opened the Embassy of Colombia in Jerusalem."

The embassy sits in a stone structure from 1920. The ceremony gathered Bula, Sa'ar, Colombian Ambassador to Israel Tania Gilinski Bacal, Aisen, and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.

Palestinian officials faulted the choice. Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh denounced the step, claiming it ignored international law and Jerusalem's contested status. Jordan's Foreign Ministry also protested, calling the embassy opening a breach of international law and related resolutions.

Israel views all of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the seat of a future state. Most nations keep their embassies in Tel Aviv or nearby, arguing that Jerusalem's final status requires Israeli-Palestinian talks.

For Aisen, who reached Bogota eight weeks ago, the first task was to restore diplomatic links after former Colombian President Gustavo Petro cut ties with Israel in May 2024 over the Gaza war.

"We did not arrive intending to return to the past," Aisen said. "We arrived to build our relations and advance much further."

The countries have since restored diplomatic posts, named ambassadors, and restarted practical work. Reciprocal visa rules ended on September 1, while Colombia dropped Petro's ban on coal exports to Israel.

Israel and Colombia revive trade and security work

The free trade agreement needed a more technical path. On October 13, the governments finished an exchange of diplomatic notes to restore the pact, which first took effect in August 2020.

Israel's Foreign Ministry called the move a reversal of Petro's ending of the agreement. Aisen noted that the prior Colombian government had tried to cancel the treaty but had not finished the domestic steps for leaving an international accord. The new government thus had to reactivate the existing deal rather than craft a new one.

The revived economic link rests on decades of commercial and security work. Colombia has long used Israeli military gear, and the governments are exploring wider ties in cybersecurity, technology, agriculture, and other areas.

In a recorded message to Wednesday's event, de la Espriella called Israel a friend and strategic partner. He listed security, intelligence, counterterrorism, organized crime, agriculture, science, innovation, and trade as key areas.

Colombia steps back from global moves against Israel

Colombia's diplomatic shift also reaches international bodies.

On September 18, Bogota informed the International Court of Justice that it was withdrawing its declaration of intervention in South Africa's case accusing Israel of breaking the Genocide Convention during the Gaza war.

The court confirmed the withdrawal four days later. Colombia had joined in April 2024 to offer its reading of the convention. Its exit does not halt South Africa's case against Israel, which denies the genocide claims.

The court action stands apart from Colombia's bid to leave the Hague Group, which Bula announced at Wednesday's event.

"We reject that path," Bula said of the coalition.

He framed the request as another move toward restoring a bond that began when Colombia recognized Israel in 1949 and set up diplomatic ties in 1957.

Antisemitism worries surface with renewed Israel links

Bula said Colombia's Foreign Ministry would team with other ministries and the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia to build a national plan against antisemitism.

The work would also use guidance from the US State Department's Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, he said, while seeking Israeli input.

During Wednesday's event, Bula faulted the prior administration for what he called its failure to clearly condemn terrorism and accused it of fueling "what may be the most virulent wave of antisemitism in Colombia's recent history."

"The government of President de la Espriella, this Foreign Ministry and this foreign minister will not stay silent," Bula said. "We will not allow this scourge to spread unchecked and unchallenged across the country."

Aisen said views toward Israel grew more divided after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and the following war in Gaza. She said some anti-Israel talk had drawn on old antisemitic conspiracy theories.

"If you open my Twitter account, you will see comments that reach back to medieval antisemitism," she said.

One case she mentioned involved Israel's aid response to Colombia's major earthquake in August. Israel sent about 80 rescue and medical staff plus extra medical gear after the disaster.

Aisen said online claims had spread alleging that Israeli rescue staff had come to Colombia to take children. She described the claims as an instance of antisemitic conspiracy theories aimed at Israel.

Her main worry is that hostility toward the Israeli government can spread to Colombia's Jewish population, with Jews blamed for Israeli policies or actions.

"The Colombian Jewish community became guilty for everything that the State of Israel does," she said. "That antisemitism must be faced."

Yet Aisen said her own time in Colombia had differed sharply from the hostility she saw online.

"I feel extremely welcome by everyone I meet, not only people in the government but also members of the general public," she said. "They thank me for Israel being back in Colombia. They feel that Israel can contribute a great deal to the country and that those two lost years were regrettable."

Marcos Peckel, executive director of the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia and commissioner to combat antisemitism at the Latin American Jewish Congress, attended both the embassy opening and Wednesday evening's event.

"For those of us who know the history of what this means, it gave us goosebumps," Peckel told The Media Line. "It shows that President Abelardo de la Espriella is fully committed to taking the relationship between Israel and Colombia to its highest level."

Peckel, who has served on the World Jewish Congress Executive Committee since 2013, said Colombia's population, regional influence, and record of commercial and security work with Israel give the embassy decision real diplomatic weight.

Peckel's worry centers on whether the renewed bond can last through future government changes.

Thousands of protesters filled streets in Colombian cities on October 14 to oppose de la Espriella's domestic policies, with some also rejecting his renewed partnership with Israel and closer links to the United States.

Aisen noted that Israel has become part of Colombia's domestic political split. The Jerusalem embassy, one of de la Espriella's most visible foreign policy moves, could become a target for his opponents, she said.

"As an Israeli, it hurts me to see that Israel became an issue that divides the public," she said. "It should not be that way."

Peckel believes work in agriculture, water management, scientific research, trade, and other practical areas could make bilateral ties more stable against political shifts. He seeks partnerships with institutions and key sectors of Colombian society that can last beyond the current administration.

"These changes have to outlast governments," Peckel said. "The challenge in Latin America is to build very strong roots with the people and with important sectors such as agriculture and water, so that if another government comes, it cannot simply undo what is being built."