Bolivia Cuts Zionist Ties; Colombia, Chile Recall Envoys

LA PAZ (KI) -- Bolivia said it had broken diplomatic ties with the occupying regime of Israel because of its attacks on the Gaza Strip, while neighbors Colombia and Chile recalled their ambassadors to Tel Aviv for consultations.

The three South American nations lambasted the Zionist regime’s attacks on Gaza and condemned the deaths of Palestinian citizens.
Bolivia “decided to break diplomatic relations with Israel in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip,” Deputy Foreign Minister Freddy Mamani said at a press conference.
The three countries called for a ceasefire, with Bolivia and Chile pushing for the passage of humanitarian aid into the zone and accusing Israel of violating international law.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the attacks a “massacre of the Palestinian people” in a post on the social media network X, formerly known as Twitter.
Other Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Brazil, have also called for a ceasefire.
“What we have now is the insanity of Israel’s prime minister, who wants to wipe out the Gaza Strip,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday.
Bolivia is among the first countries to actively break diplomatic relations with Israel over its war in Gaza.
Bolivia cut diplomatic ties with the occupying regime in 2009 under the government of leftist President Evo Morales, also in protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
In 2020, the government of right-wing interim President Jeanine Anez reestablished ties.
“We reject the war crimes being committed in Gaza. We support international initiatives to guarantee humanitarian aid, in compliance with international law,” Bolivian President Arce said on social media on Monday.
An MP from Israel’s ruling Likud party and a recent minister on Wednesday called for all of Gaza to be erased from the earth, saying the coastal enclave should be “wiped out”.
Galit Distel Atbaryan, who until two weeks ago was public diplomacy minister, took to Facebook to call on Zionists to invest their energy in one thing. “Erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth,” she wrote.
Distel Atbaryan said she wished to see “the brave monsters” flee over Gaza’s southern barrier into Egypt, “or let them die”.
“Gaza needs to be wiped out,” she added, saying that “Nazis” in the occupied West Bank needed to be targeted too. A “vengeful and vicious” Israeli military was required, she said. “Anything less than that is immoral.”
War minister Yoav Gallant has called Palestinians “human animals”.
Zionist political commentator Eliyahu Yossian recently said: “You have to enter Gaza at the height of brutality, with the aim of revenge, zero morality, maximum corpses.”
Meanwhile, Moshe Feiglin, a former right-wing MP, told Al Jazeera the only solution is the “complete destruction of Gaza … destruction like in Dresden and Hiroshima, without a nuclear weapon”.
Two weeks ago, the office manager of Netanyahu’s wife Sara said that Palestinians involved in the October 7 operation should be tortured.
“Save their tongues for last, so we can enjoy his screams, his ears so he can hear his own screams, and his eyes so he can see us smiling,” Tzipi Navon on social media.
There have been several attacks on Palestinian citizens of occupied territories. On Saturday, a mob of right-wing Zionists stormed a dormitory in the central city of Netanya where Palestinian students were residing, chanting “death to Arabs”.