Colombia- On the balcony of the family home in the city of Barranquilla, located in northern Colombia, Jorge Seaman’s (52-year-old) aunt, Julia, was talking to him about Palestine, about history and geography, and about the life the family left behind when the grandparents left Bethlehem in 1952 after the Nakba.
A number of Arabs who arrived in Colombia settled in Barranquilla in the late nineteenth century, coming mainly from Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.
The country is preparing to vote next Sunday to choose between two projects (the right-winger Abelardo is preparing to run in a second round in the country’s presidential elections against the leftist Ivan Cepeda, after the two candidates recorded very close results) that will determine its direction during The next four years.
Solidarity networks with Palestine are following these elections with concern and anticipation. This is not because Palestine occupies a central position in the electoral campaign, but rather because the result may decide whether Colombia will continue the approach established by President Gustavo Petro or will return to its previous traditional alliances.
Palestine on tongues
More than seventy years after his family’s migration, Palestine still occupies a central place in the life of George, who grew up listening to stories of the land of his ancestors, as well as in the life of his family. His father wrote two books about Palestine addressed to the Colombian reader to introduce its history, while George, who today works in the field of business administration, devotes a large part of his time to activities that seek to introduce the Palestinian cause and build forms of solidarity with it.
During the term of progressive President Gustavo Petro, who will leave power next August, Colombia implemented one of its biggest diplomatic turns in its modern history. Petro cut ties with Israel, denounced the war it launched against the residents of the Gaza Strip, including men, women and children, and turned the Palestinian issue into one of his foreign policy priorities.
George Seaman believes that this shift in Colombia’s foreign policy has acquired a symbolic value that goes beyond the diplomatic dimension.
He told Al Jazeera Net: “I will remain grateful to Pietro because he put Palestine on the tongues in Colombia.” He added: “The Arab community did not do that, while he did it, even though he does not have a single drop of Arab blood.”
Seaman strongly criticizes the Colombian elites descended from Arab immigrants, whom he accuses of staying away from the Palestinian issue. He asserts that “there are those who remember their Arab origins when they eat kibbeh or participate in Arab dances, but they remain silent when it comes to Palestine.”
For him, the bulk of solidarity with Palestine in Colombia does not necessarily come from people with family roots in the Middle East. He says: “I see support for Palestine, especially among humble people who do not have a single drop of Arab blood, but they have a sense of humanity.”
The relationship between Colombia and Israel before Petro
Researchers and observers believe that the diplomatic transformation that Jorge talks about during the Petro era may actually amount to a coup in Colombian foreign policy.
The professor of international relations at the Externado University in Colombia, Pio Garcia Parra, stated in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that Colombia’s relations with Israel are “directly linked to the general state of dependence between Colombia and the United States.”
He recalls that successive right-wing Colombian governments have sided with Israel for decades. The Israeli presence in Colombia was not limited to diplomatic relations, but also extended to years of internal conflict. Israel provided the Colombian state with weapons and military training during its war against leftist groups, and its name was also associated with training paramilitary groups that played a prominent role in the violence that targeted leftist circles in the country.
Two different paths
Colombian foreign policy specialist Hector Galeano David, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, believes that Petro “began to propose a relationship based on a greater degree of independence and moving away from dependence on the United States.” This shift was particularly evident in Colombia’s position on Palestine, especially after October 7, 2023 and the Israeli war on Gaza.
According to the researcher, defending human rights has become one of the axes of Colombian foreign policy in recent years, and this trend is likely to continue if candidate Ivan Cepeda, who belongs to the same political movement as Petro, wins.
The analyst believes that this path may change radically if Abelardo de la Espriria, representative of the extreme right, wins. Regarding de la Esperría, he adds: “There is an interest on the part of Israel, the evangelical churches, and sectors of the American extreme right in Colombia regaining its position as a strategic ally.”
According to his reading, the difference between the two political projects is profound and goes far beyond the issue of bilateral relations with Israel. He adds: “These are huge differences. I spent many years studying Colombian politics, and this is the first time I have seen such profound differences between two foreign policy projects.”
Fears of decline
Diana, an activist in the BDS Colombia movement, told Al Jazeera Net that the potential arrival of the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Esperilla to power “will mean, immediately, the loss of one of the most present and powerful voices on the international scene in calling for imposing sanctions, and in taking practical positions against genocide against the Palestinian people.”
She adds that it is also likely that coal exports to Israel will resume, noting that Colombia was, before the ban on the energy sector, the largest supplier of coal to Israel, considering that this ban is one of the most notable achievements achieved in recent years.
But what most worries activists in solidarity with Palestine is the future of military relations between Bogota and Tel Aviv. Diana says that the military embargo was not implemented with the same degree of firmness as the energy export ban, but the movement hoped to push for a deeper rift with Israel if leftist candidate Ivan Cepeda came to power.
She adds that De La Espriria, on the other hand, adopts completely different positions. He pledged to restore the military alliance with Israel.
She believes that these positions raise serious concerns in a country whose memory is still burdened by political violence and internal conflicts. It is recalled that Colombia has known long periods of repression and violence, considering that some of the current political discourses bring to mind the vocabulary of the “internal enemy” that marked bloody stages of the country’s history.
From this standpoint, the activist links what is happening in Palestine to the experiences lived by Colombians themselves. She says that large segments of the population may not be familiar with the details of the Palestinian issue, but they are no stranger to forced displacement, massacres, armed violence, and elite control over resources.
Beyond the ballot boxes
While experts and activists debate whether Colombia will continue the path charted by Petro or return to its traditional alliances, Jorge Seaman looks beyond polling day.
He says: “In Latin America, we must resist and educate. We must explain to new generations what colonialism did to Palestine and to our region as well.”
He believes, in the end, that even if he does not underestimate the importance of politicians and diplomacy, the real battle will only be resolved in schools and universities, and in the way Colombians narrate their history and their relationships with the world.
He concludes by saying: “The Palestinian may seem far removed from the daily concerns of Colombians, but time reveals the interconnection between these issues.”
