September 22, 2025 (ColombiaOne.com)
Colombia has announced that it will request the creation of an armed peacekeeping force to enter Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly, scheduled to start today in New York.
The announcement was made by Colombian President Gustavo Petro during a televised address recently, in which he presented his government’s progress on issues related to education.
In his remarks, the president stated that “modern wars in the world are based exclusively on mathematics, carried out from computers, very comfortably in offices in New York and Washington, while bombs actually fall on the heads of babies in Gaza.”
Colombia to propose creation of UN peacekeeping force for Palestine at General Assembly
The President of Colombia Gustavo Petro will propose in his address to this year’s United Nations General Assembly the creation of a peacekeeping force to enter Palestine and stop Israel’s military operation.
Petro presented this proposal to the country during a televised address in which he explained advances in education and, as he often does, linked one issue to another before announcing his readiness to once again bring up the Palestinian issue in the international forum, as he has done on previous occasions.
On this matter, the Colombian president recalled that he ordered the “total prohibition of coal exports” to Israel, because, according to him, “with that coal they make bombs,” denouncing that the United Nations Security Council is blocked by the United States’ veto of any General Assembly resolution on peace in Gaza.
In this regard, Petro reminded that starting in January 2026, Colombia will have voice and vote in the United Nations Security Council, as it will be part of it as a non-permanent member for one year.
Colombia willing to take part in the ‘armed peacekeeping force’ for Palestine
In his announcement, the Colombian president emphasized that it is necessary for the U.N. Assembly to vote, by majority, for the establishment of such an armed peacekeeping force, in which Colombia must participate, representing respect for the “right of humanity to demand an end to genocide.”
In his address, he repeated his call for Israel to end its military operations, framing this armed peace contingent as a mechanism of international pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. “If not, they will not respect us, and they will continue killing children in Gaza until they exterminate them,” he said.
“Humanity cannot allow genocide to exist, because the bombs that fall in Gaza will also fall in Bogota, in Caracas, in Quito, in Buenos Aires — regardless of what each of their presidents may think–and in Africa, and so on. Because today the mathematical war that is being waged is against the peoples of the world who are not wealthy, who do not buy enough, and who are rebellious in the sense that we want a humanity at peace and full of life,” he noted.
Petro and his commitment against war
Since the start of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza in October 2023, the president of Colombia became one of the first voices in the world to describe what was happening as a “genocide.” His statements marked a break with Colombia’s traditional position in foreign policy and sparked intense debates both domestically and internationally.
Since then, Petro has denounced the “disproportion” of Israel’s attack and demanded an immediate ceasefire, while also calling on the international community to act more decisively to protect the Palestinian civilian population.
At the United Nations General Assembly, Petro has repeatedly voiced his denunciations. In his September 2023 speech, just weeks before the conflict began, he called “to defend life and end wars in order to end the climate crisis.” A year later, in 2024, he used the same platform to demand “an end to the genocide in Gaza,” while also insisting on the need to recognize the State of Palestine.
Looking ahead to his upcoming participation in this year’s assembly, it seems clear that Petro is maintaining his critical stance, insisting that Gaza represents a symbol of the global inability to stop barbarism and reaffirming his commitment to a multilateral peace.
Related: Colombia’s Petro Arrived in the US to Participate in UNGA.
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(Contributed by Janet Kobren)
