He President Gustavo Petro discussed this Saturday, September 21 on social networks with a United States diplomat who criticized his comparisons of Nazi death camps with Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
(Read: Petro at the UN: the topics that the president will discuss at the General Assembly)
“President Gustavo Petro’s continued rhetoric normalizes anti-Semitism. We cannot accept it, we cannot tolerate it. We must condemn these harmful narratives.“, wrote on social networks the U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt.
In another message, the person in charge of combating anti-Semitism wrote: “Comparing any current action, particularly by Israel, to the systematic annihilation of Nazi death camps is deeply offensive. Legitimate concern for human rights in Gaza must be separated from erroneous and anti-Semitic historical references.”
(Read more: ‘How wrong he is’: Federico Gutiérrez to Petro on criticism of Hidroituango).
On several occasions, Petro has expressed his rejection of the way in which Israel has proceeded militarily against the civilian population of Gaza and has compared what is happening in the Strip with the actions of the Nazis in World War II.
Madam Ambassador, @StateSEAS According to the Bible, Palestinians are Semites, as the term ‘Semite’ refers to the descendants of Shem and their language.
Therefore, it is antisemitic to kill boys and girls by dropping bombs on Gaza and not to oppose it. The most antisemitic act…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 21, 2024
In response to Lipstadt’s criticism, the Colombian president asked her to respect his positions.I am not anti-Semitic, please do not confuse and respect. I am not anti-Jewish, I believe in freedom of religion and if I had been born in that era I would have given my life in the armed resistance against the Nazis.“, Petro said in a long statement on his X account.
He then said: “But I believe in the freedom that international law creates, the freedom that was built after Hitler was defeated by the Americans and the Soviets and by all the peoples of the world: humanity.”
(Besides: Petro at the UN: the issues that the president will discuss at the General Assembly).
He also assured that “It is anti-Semitic to kill children by throwing bombs in Gaza and not to oppose it. The most anti-Semitic thing today is to repeat Hitler’s holocaust on humanity and especially on the Palestinian people.“.
Israel-Gaza war
Petro, who is a fervent defender of the Palestinian cause and very critical of Israel, a country with which he broke relations last May, He is scheduled to speak at the UN next Tuesday, on the first day of the new session of the General Assembly..
(Read also: The ELN dissident group with which the National Government seeks a ceasefire).
The Colombian head of state concluded by saying that “Mr. (Benjamin) Netanyahu and his government, an absent prisoner of international justice, are not Semitism, they are Nazism.”
The Colombian Foreign Ministry intervened in the discussion, translating the president’s messages into English and publishing them on X.
EFE
