By Boris Góngora on October 31, 2023.
Min. of the Presidency, Maria Nela Prada and Deputy Foreign Minister Freddy Mamani informs that Bolivia has cut relations with Israel.
The Government of Bolivia, through Deputy Foreign Minister Freddy Mamani, announced Tuesday afternoon the severance of relations with the State of Israel in repudiation and condemnation of the “aggressive and disproportionate” Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the “crimes against humanity” that continue to take place.
“We are going to refer to the crimes against humanity being committed in the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian people. Yesterday, October 30, our President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora held a meeting with the Ambassador of Palestine, to whom our President expressed his solidarity and that of the Bolivian people for the suffering of the Palestinian people,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Maria Nela Prada.
She added that the President called for a definitive solution and for Palestine be allowed to exercise its right to self-determination and its territory “without illegal occupations” and “consolidate its own free and independent state” within the framework of its borders established with East Jerusalem as its capital in 1967.
Deputy Foreign Minister Freddy Mamani informed that the decision of the Bolivian State will be officially communicated through the diplomatic channels established between the two countries.
“The Plurinational State of Bolivia demands the cessation of the attacks in the Gaza Strip that has caused thousands of victims and the forced displacement of Palestinians throughout Gaza. The Bolivian government also called for the the immediate cessation of the blockade that prevents the entry of food and water”, said Mamani.
Israel and Bolivia re-established diplomatic relations in February 2020, after they were broken during the government of Evo Morales in 2008 following a previous Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
After a meeting held between the then transitory president Jeanine Áñez and the Israeli ambassador to Peru for Bolivia, Asaf Ichilevich, relations were resumed within the framework of respect for the “sovereignty of the state”.
“Bolivia has always been a friendly country to Israel and the peoples always had good relations. We have met with Madam President and with the Foreign Minister (Karen Longaric), we talked about technical cooperation, on issues of agriculture, education, health, among others”, Ichilevich stated then.
Given the genocide taking place now on the people of Gaza that has all changed today as the Deputy Foreign Minister Freddy Mamani declared that the decision of the Bolivian State will be officially communicated through the diplomatic channels established between both countries.