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Colombia inaugurated its embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, becoming one of a few countries, including the United States, to take the symbolic step of backing Israeli sovereignty over the contested holy city.
Most countries keep their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv, arguing that a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should decide Jerusalem’s status.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar signed the Colombian embassy’s guest book during the ceremony and said, “This is an important date for the State of Israel. It’s also an important date for the city of Jerusalem.”
Abelardo de la Espriella, Colombia’s new hard-right president, announced the move in July, marking a stark break from his leftist predecessor, who criticized Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.
President Donald Trump broke with international consensus in 2018, during his first term, by moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. The city is also the seat of Israel’s parliament, its prime minister and nearly all key government bodies.
Since Trump's move, only a handful of small, U.S.-aligned countries have followed suit: Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay.
Kosovo and Somaliland, which are not member-states of the United Nations, have also opened what they consider their embassies in Jerusalem.
Argentine President Javier Milei, an outspoken supporter of Israel and another right-wing Latin American leader, has pledged to relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem.
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Few issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict prove as thorny as the status of Jerusalem.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and annexed it in 1967, in a move not recognised by the vast majority of the international community.
Colombia’s new hard-right government recognized Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights in August, territory seized from Syria in 1967.
Until then, only the U.S. had recognized Israel’s 1981 annexation of the territory.
The United Nations considers the plateau Syrian land that Israel holds under military occupation.
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