Three Latin American countries, El Salvador, Peru and Chile have decided to recall their ambassadors for consultations to protest against Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said he was ‘’deeply disappointed’’ by the move which, he stressed, “constitutes encouragement for Hamas, a group recognized as a terror organization by many countries around the world.”
‘’Israel expected countries who oppose terrorism to “act responsibly and not to hand terrorists a prize,” Palmor said.
“So far, every time Israel accepted plans for establishing a cease-fire and restoring calm, it was countered by Hamas’s sustained rocket fire,” he said.
‘’The three Latin American countries would have been much better advised to promote the international move intended to assist Israel in its efforts to defend innocent civilians and instate a durable cease-fire with the demilitarization of Gaza,” Palmor added.
Last week, Brazil and Ecuador announced a similar decision.
On Tuesday four of the five members of the Mercosur trade bloc, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela, issued a statement condemning Israel during a summit in Caracas for “disproportionate use of force.”
Paraguay did not sign the statement.
David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee which is active in Latin America, issued a statement saying that it was astonishing that the Mercosur statement did not even mention Hamas.
Harris said "the notion that Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay would issue a joint statement with Venezuela voicing concern about human rights anywhere would be laughable, if it weren't so terribly tragic. Caracas has been one of the main defenders of Syrian President Assad, who is responsible for some 170,000 deaths and millions of refugees, and is a staunch ally of Iran, the principal state sponsor of terrorism in the world, including at least two deadly attacks in Argentina in 1992 and 1994. Shame!"
The president of Bolivia Evo Morales on Wednesday called Israel a “terrorist state”.
“Sadly, the government of Israel does not respect international conventions, human rights,” Morales said at a cabinet meeting Wednesday. Morales said Israel would be categorized a “list 3” country, which designates it a terrorist state in Bolivia. Morales then declared that Bolivia would terminate a 40-year agreement on Israeli travel to the country.
“We have taken a firm decision to denounce the visa agreement with Israel from August 17, 1972, that was signed under a dictatorship regime in Bolivia and allowed Israeli citizens to entre Bolivia freely, without even an entry visa,” he said.
The Bolivian government under Morales formally broke off diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009 over Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, which Morales termed a “genocide.”