Israel suspends defense sales to Colombia

SANTIAGO, Chile — The Israeli government has suspended all sales and supplies of defense and security hardware and related services to Colombia.

The move followed a heated exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter, between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Israeli Ambassador in Bogota Gali Dagan about the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip .

Petro had refused to condemn the Hamas raid. When Dagan urged Petro to speak about the attack on Israel, Colombia’s president replied with a message that “terrorism is killing innocent children in Palestine” and followed up with messages in which he accused Israel of turning Gaza into a “concentration camp.”

Petro doubled down on his criticism of Israel over the weekend, describing its military campaign in Gaza as “genocide” and threatening to break off relations with the Jewish state.

“If we must suspend diplomatic relations with Israel, then that is what we will do,” he wrote on X on Sunday. “You cannot insult the president of Colombia.”

Ultimately, Israel called Colombia’s ambassador to a meeting in which she was informed that defense cooperation between the countries would be suspended, the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a news release.

Colombia’s Defense Ministry did not reply to Defense News’ request for comment.

Colombia has had a close relationship with Israel, with the former having acquired military hardware and security equipment from the latter for decades. But relations chilled after Preto became president in August 2022.

Emilio Meneses, an independent security analyst based in Santiago, told Defense News the president’s “outburst of criticism against Israel, which could have been expressed in a more appropriate language and through proper diplomatic channels, is helping neither the Palestine people nor Colombia. Quite the opposite.”

Colombia has plans to acquire the Barak MX air defense system , made by Israel Aerospace Industries, to meet a requirement for protecting deployed personnel and strategic facilities.

The Colombian Air Force’s primary fighter jet and only high-performance combat aircraft is also made by IAI. The service has an estimated 24 Kfir fighters. Technical problems involving their General Electric J79 turbojet engines led to the Air Force grounding its Kfir entire fleet in 2015.

Restoring the fleet required involvement from IAI, which has historically provided extensive maintenance services, in both Colombia and Israel. In January 2023, the parties renewed the contract for these services until 2025.

The Kfir jets are also armed with weapons acquired from Israel, including the Derby BVR medium-range air-to-air missiles from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Griffin laser-guided-bombs from IAI.

And the Kfirs use Python III and Python IV all-aspect, heat-seeking, close-range air-to-air missiles, made by Rafael. Those weapons are also used for the service’s A-29 Super Tucano turboprop aircraft.

The main infantry rifles in use with the Colombian military are the Israel Weapons Industries-made 5.56mm Galil automatic rifle machine gun and 7.62mm Galil sniper rifle. Since the 1980s, they were produced in Colombia under license by the state-owned concern INDUMIL, which has exported these weapons to other countries in South and Central America. Colombia has started to replace the Galil weapons with the newer Galil ACE infantry rifle, made locally by INDUMIL under license from IWI.

The Spike weapon from Rafael is the main anti-tank missile in the Colombian Army’s inventory, while the Sikorsky UH-60 Arpia IV ground-fire support helicopters from the Air Force are armed with ER, LR and NLOS versions of the same weapon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

José Higuera is a Latin America correspondent for Defense News.

智利圣地亚哥——以色列政府已暂停向哥伦比亚出售和供应所有国防和安全硬件及相关服务。

此前，哥伦比亚总统古斯塔沃·佩特罗和以色列驻波哥大大使加利·达甘在 X（前身为 Twitter）上就加沙地带持续不断的冲突展开了激烈的争论。

佩特罗拒绝谴责哈马斯的袭击。当达甘敦促佩特罗就以色列遇袭事件发表讲话时，这位哥伦比亚总统回应说“恐怖主义正在巴勒斯坦杀害无辜儿童”，随后又发信息指责以色列将加沙变成了“集中营”。

周末，佩特罗加倍批评以色列，称其在加沙的军事行动是“种族灭绝”，并威胁要与这个犹太国家断绝关系。

“如果我们必须中止与以色列的外交关系，那么我们就这么做，”他周日在X网站上写道。“你不能侮辱哥伦比亚总统。”

以色列外交部在一份新闻稿中表示，最终，以色列召见了哥伦比亚大使，并在会上告知她两国之间的防务合作将暂停。

哥伦比亚国防部没有回复《防务新闻》的置评请求。

哥伦比亚与以色列一直保持着密切的关系，几十年来，哥伦比亚从以色列采购了大量军事装备和安全设备。但自普雷托于2022年8月就任总统后，两国关系开始降温。

常驻圣地亚哥的独立安全分析师埃米利奥·梅内塞斯告诉《防务新闻》，总统“对以色列的猛烈抨击，本可以用更恰当的语言并通过正规的外交渠道表达，但这既没有帮助巴勒斯坦人民，也没有帮助哥伦比亚。恰恰相反。”

哥伦比亚计划采购以色列航空航天工业公司生产的巴拉克MX防空系统，以满足保护部署人员和战略设施的需求。

哥伦比亚空军的主力战斗机，也是其唯一的高性能作战飞机，同样由以色列航空工业公司（IAI）制造。据估计，哥伦比亚空军拥有约24架“幼狮”（Kfir）战斗机。由于通用电气J79涡轮喷气发动机存在技术问题，哥伦比亚空军于2015年停飞了所有“幼狮”战斗机。

机队修复工作需要以色列航空工业公司（IAI）的参与，该公司历来在哥伦比亚和以色列都提供广泛的维护服务。2023年1月，双方续签了这些服务的合同，有效期至2025年。

Kfir战斗机还配备了从以色列采购的武器，包括拉斐尔先进防御系统公司的Derby超视距中程空空导弹和以色列航空工业公司的Griffin激光制导炸弹。

“幼狮”战斗机使用由拉斐尔公司制造的Python III和Python IV全向红外制导近程空空导弹。这些武器也用于空军的A-29“超级巨嘴鸟”涡轮螺旋桨飞机。

哥伦比亚军队目前主要使用的步枪是以色列武器工业公司（IWI）生产的5.56毫米加利尔自动步枪和7.62毫米加利尔狙击步枪。自20世纪80年代以来，这些武器由哥伦比亚国有企业INDUMIL获得许可在哥伦比亚生产，并出口到南美洲和中美洲其他国家。哥伦比亚已开始用新型加利尔ACE步枪替换现有的加利尔步枪，后者由INDUMIL获得IWI许可在哥伦比亚本地生产。

拉斐尔公司的“长钉”反坦克导弹是哥伦比亚陆军装备的主要反坦克导弹，而空军的西科斯基UH-60“阿尔皮亚IV”地面火力支援直升机则装备了该武器的ER、LR和NLOS版本。

美联社对本报道亦有贡献。

何塞·伊格拉是《防务新闻》拉丁美洲记者。