Colombia president calls on Biden to stop ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro yesterday once again criticised Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip and called for the US to stop the “genocide”.

“President Biden must act quickly to stop the genocide in Gaza. This approach is true: the Israeli people must change their current government and open the way to a definitive peace that is based on the existence of two sovereign states,” Petro wrote on X.

The Colombian president wrote the message citing news about Biden administration staffers calling on the US president to support a permanent ceasefire.

Political appointees, administration staffers and civil service career staff, wearing sunglasses and masks to conceal their identities, attended a vigil in front of the White House on Wednesday.

“The temporary ceasefire ended 13 days ago, and we have been horrified to see the full resumption of killings, displacement and bombardment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned from his job in October over disagreement with the Biden administration’s approach to Israel’s bombing of Gaza, said in a speech.

“We demand President Biden and members of the Cabinet to speak up: Call for a permanent ceasefire, a release of all hostages and an immediate de-escalation now.”

The US has repeatedly vetoed UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire, despite pleas from the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to stop the war.

Human Rights Watch has warned that the US risked “complicity in war crimes” by continuing to provide Israel with weapons and diplomatic cover as it continues to commit atrocities against the civilian population in Gaza.

Petro has been critical of Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, which has caused the death of more than 18,000 civilians, the majority children.

READ: The treachery of Biden’s words