BDS Colombia continues to stand in with Palestine in their struggle against the Israeli illegal military occupation of their lands. As part of their commitment to support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestments and sanctions against Israel, BSD Colombia organized a seris of talks between June and August 2013 to address economic, military and cultural relations between Colombia and Israel.
The last event, focusing on economic liaison between the two states came at a crucial time given the fact that both countries signed the Free Trade Agreement [in Spanish, Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC)] last June and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Commerce, Sergio Diaz, intends to raise this treaty as a bill for the new Colombian Congress to enact.
BDS Colombia is well aware that the success of their campaign to boycott, divest, and sanction Israelis companies and subsidiaries in Colombia is contingent upon the support of the Colombian people. Therefore, initiatives like this talk, organized by BDS Colombia, are more than needed in order to bring awareness to the public, in Colombia and elsewhere, of the ongoing brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine.
BDS Colombia comments about their efforts: "Economically speaking, Colombia is the third most important country for Israeli trade in Latin America, and of the total trade Colombia entertains with the Middle East, 90% is with Israel. It is nothing strange that the rich of both territories try to favour each other, what is indeed strange is that the people that are suffering their domination have not yet built close ties of solidarity, not only theoretically but practicing the most basic form of internationalism".