“Urgent measures needed to stop the genocide in Palestine”: civil society delegates met with Francesca Albanese in Bogotá

Members of international organizations such as the Palestinian National Committee for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BNC), the Coalition of Social Movements Against Genocide, Public Services International, and the People's Health Movement met in Bogota with the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, to discuss actions to stop the genocide, denounce the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people, and seek joint actions to rebuild the health system and bring humanitarian aid to the victims.

At the meeting held at the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, civil society delegates read a statement as follows:

"To the government of Colombia; To the delegations meeting in Bogotá at the International Emergency Conference to Halt the Genocide in Gaza; To the world

Bogotá D.C., 15-16 July 2025

As a broad unity platform of Colombian citizens' organisations that stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine, we call on the governments joining the International Emergency Conference to Halt the Genocide in Gaza to consolidate their commitment to the implementation of international and humanitarian law, as well as the fulfilment of the universal, inalienable and indivisible right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to a sovereign state, ensuring the return of Palestinian refugees, and to bringing an end to the illegal occupation, genocide and apartheid by the Zionist state of Israel that aims at the destruction of the courageous Palestinian people. 

From this standpoint, we salute the coherence of President Petro's government policies in the face of the genocide against the Palestinian people and is role as cochair of the Hague group along with South Africa.
We call on governments to urgently join the Palestinian civil society's call since 2005 for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

In Colombia, we are historically aware of the horrors of war and as people of the global south, we share the struggle for justice, truth and life. It is imperative for us to demand immediate concrete actions that allow states to put themselves on the right side of history.

In less than two years, the genocide has killed more than 186,000 people directly or indirectly, according to The Lancet. More than 127,000 people have been injured, with unhealable trauma affecting mental and physical health, and more than 5,000 children maimed. Every day more than 160 women give birth in dehumanising conditions and gender violence is part of the war strategy. 

The Israeli Zionist project is part of the global colonial and imperialist strategy, created and funded by the governments of USA and the UK with the complicity o direct participation of other global north powers, and implemented by a criminal state that lacks legitimacy. After 77 years, we witness today the continued intensification of this live-streamed genocide, implemented in total impunity.

We welcome the intention of the member countries of the Hague Group to ensure respect for international and humanitarian law, and to fulfil their duties arising from the International Court of Justice's interim measures on the illegality of the Israeli occupation and its apartheid policies, including:

• Supporting the International Criminal Court's requests, as well as the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant;
• preventing the supply or transfer of arms, ammunition and related equipment to Israel; and
• preventing the docking of vessels used to transport fuel and military weapons to Israel.
   

UN General Assembly reports give evidence of the use of forced starvation and the use of artificially intelligent and autonomous military tools as war instruments. This demonstrates the diversification of genocidal practices by the occupying state to increase the disproportionality of violence by a regular army against an unarmed civilian population.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Francesca Albanese now persecuted by the government of USA, released a new report "From the economics of occupation to the economics of genocide" which shows corporate complicity with the Israeli regime of occupation, apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people, highlighting the role of various economic sectors in fuelling the economics of genocide. Despite a presidential decree banning exports of energy resources, companies Drummond and Glencore continue to export coal to Israel. Free trade agreements with Israel are incentives for complicity that must be cancelled now. 

At this time of criminalisation of social action in the world, especially when it is in support of the Palestinian cause, it is important to redouble international solidarity and the commitment of all states to preserve these spaces. In Colombia, it is necessary to define and differentiate between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, so that they cannot be conflated and used to prosecute social action in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Palestine is a litmus test for humanity - not only for the Palestinian people - we need the strength and courage to put an end to a world where only the power of the strongest counts.

Therefore, we call on the Colombian government and the governments members of the Hague Group and governments participating to the International Emergency Conference to Halt the Genocide in Gaza:

• Break all diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, declare Consul Kobi Valer as persona non-grata, as well as implement arrest warrants against senior officials, officers and soldiers implicated in crimes against humanity present in our territories, as dictated by the principle of universal jurisdiction.
• A total military embargo, including the import and export of arms, military, intelligence and technological cooperation, as well as banning the use of maritime flags, ports and territorial waters for transfer of military and double use cargos with the occupying state of Israel and its military-industrial complex.
• The effective implementation of a ban and sanctions on the export of energy resources such as coal and fuel to Israel and the denunciation of Free Trade Agreements with Israel to end all economic relationships that support or profit from Israeli crimes.
• The creation of a public procurement policy that prohibits contracts with companies complicit in Israel's genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation and the review of commercial contracts for arms and military intelligence software. 
• Develop an effective humanitarian aid policy with coordinated health actions based on comprehensive primary health care that is included it in the mandate of the Hague Group.
• Ensure the expulsion of the criminal state of Israel from the United Nations, as well as ensure international trials against genocide perpetrators Netanyahu, Gallant and other Zionist leaders, for their crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity, in analogy to the Nurenberg trials. 
   

With respect and hope,

Stop de Genocide!"