Colombia opened its new embassy in Jerusalem, Israel, on Wednesday thus fulfilling one of the campaign promises of conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella.
The opening of the facility restores Colombia’s decades-old friendly relations with Israel — undoing the unilateral rupture of diplomatic ties ordered by Marxist former President Gustavo Petro in 2024. Colombia has now become the tenth country to open its embassy in Jerusalem.
The ceremony took place on Wednesday morning (local Jerusalem time) and was presided over by Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula alongside his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar, who described Wednesday as an important day not just for Jerusalem, but for Israel and Colombia’s relations.
Sa’ar, in a social media post, thanked President de la Espriella and recounted a past interaction that both shared in Buenos Aires in the past, when de la Espriella told him, “if I am elected President of the Republic, I will immediately move the Colombian embassy to Jerusalem.”
“He promised, and he delivered,” Sa’ar wrote.
“This is the tenth embassy to open in Jerusalem. Since I took office less than two years ago, the number of embassies in Jerusalem has doubled,” he added. “There will be more, God willing, and soon.”
The Colombian Foreign Ministry detailed that its diplomatic presence in Israel will help foster cooperation in security, trade, investment, agriculture, science and technology, as well as provide support to Colombian nationals living in the Middle Eastern nation.
“Under the leadership of Ambassador Tania Gilinski, the Embassy will work to turn the opportunities offered by this strategic alliance into concrete results for Colombians,” the Ministry said.
The restoration of Colombia’s diplomatic ties with Israel, and the opening of an embassy in Jerusalem, are part of a broader foreign policy and diplomatic presence realignment by Colombia conducted by the conservative government of President de la Espriella. In June, just days after becoming elected president, de la Espriella affirmed that Colombia will strengthen its ties with Israel “like never before.” De la Espriella took office on August 7.
For decades, Colombia and Israel maintained uninterrupted friendly relations ever since both countries established ties in 1957. However, the historically friendly relations between both countries were singlehandedly and unilaterally strained by Marxist former President Gustavo Petro, de la Espriella’s predecessor. Petro, in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, began a widespread international condemnation campaign against Israel and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing it of turning Gaza into a “concentration camp” to the likes of Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz during World War II.
In May 2024, Petro announced the unilateral rupture of Colombia’s ties with Israel and, weeks later, Petro ordered his government to replace the Colombian embassy in Tel Aviv with a new one in the West Bank city of Ramallah, an act that, former Foreign Minister Luis Murillo affirmed, would facilitate Colombia’s recognition of “Palestine” as a state. Israeli diplomat Gali Dagan, who had been serving as his country’s ambassador to Colombia, left the South American nation in late June 2024.
Petro nevertheless maintained his campaign against Israel after the official rupture of diplomatic ties, further straining the relationship between the two historically-friendly nations. In July 2025, over a year after the rupture of diplomatic ties with Israel, Petro claimed that “whites, descendants of slave owners,” had allegedly defied his orders to stop exporting Colombian coal to Israel. At the time, the then-Colombian president accused Israel of allegedly using the imported mineral to make bombs and “kill Palestinian babies.” Colombian experts refuted the claim and explained that the exported Colombian coal was used by Israel for energy generation, including providing power to the Gaza strip.
In September 2025, just days after his final — and highly unhinged — U.N. General Assembly speech, Petro accused President Donald Trump of allegedly aiding “genocide” in Gaza and announced the unilateral rupture of Colombia’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) deal with Israel. Per The Jerusalem Post, Colombia officially restored the FTA with Israel on Tuesday.
“In just two months, we have reversed most of the negative consequences of the Petro administration for Israel-Colombia relations and have even broken new ground,” Sa’ar reportedly said on Wednesday. “I thank Abelardo de la Espriella for his determination to bring Israel-Colombia relations to an all-time high.”
