Former President Iván Duque met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this Monday. The meeting took place in Jerusalem and was also attended by former Dapre director Víctor Muñoz and businessman Gabriel Gilinsky, of Jewish origin.
"It is always an honor to visit the State of Israel and to dialogue with a close friend and ally of the Colombian people, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom we promoted a vigorous investment and trade agenda between 2018 and 2022," said the former Colombian president.
The former president is fulfilling his agenda this week in Israel, supporting young people in the Dreamers and Makers program, a program of his R&D Foundation.
Duque revealed that"we talked about how to strengthen the social innovation agenda between entrepreneurs from Israel and Colombia", this despite the fact that diplomatic relations with that country do not currently exist due to the decision of Gustavo Petro's government to break all ties due to the military offensive in Gaza.
President Gustavo Petro was critical after learning about the meeting held in Israel."They don't care that there's genocide, that people die of hunger, that they bomb children, they've done it in Colombia too. They've lost their hearts," said the Colombian president.
Gustavo Petro has been a staunch critic of Israel's military action in Gaza, which has left more than 61,000 dead, mostly civilians. He even participated as a co-plaintiff in the legal action brought before the International Criminal Court for violations of international humanitarian law (IHL).
The president also spearheaded a severance of relations with the country and even issued a decree halting coal exports to that country. This issue has been a source of controversy due to possible exceptions to the presidential order.
