GOP Rep. Slams Colombian President Petro For 'Supporting Those Who Want To Eliminate The State Of Israel'

GOP Rep. Mario Diez-Balart slammed Colombian President Gustavo Petro for "supporting those who want to eliminate the state of Israel" and recalling that he was member of the M-19 guerrilla from the 1970s until it demobilized.

In a social media publication, Diaz-Balart added that Petro is "ignoring the atrocities committed by Hamas almost two years ago while the group keeps holding hostages and using Palestinians as human shields to justify their endless violence."

Petro has been a vocal critic of Israel's war in Gaza, repeatedly calling its actions a genocide. On Wednesday he expelled the entire Israeli delegation from the country, claiming it was a result of two nationals being detained by the country's army after being intercepted when they were attempting to reach Gaza with the Sumud flotilla.

"Hannah Arendt, the philosopher who analyzed totalitarianism, said in the 1950's that the Nazis were still alive. Hitler is alive in world politics, Arendt was right. I hope peoples are not numb," Petro said.

Petro said last week he was willing to go to "the battlefield" to fight Israel in Gaza after proposing the conformation of an international force to intervene in the conflict.

Petro made the claim in the context of a protest in New York City, in which he took part along with musician Roger Waters. There, he also proposed the creation of a "world salvation army" to "free Palestine" as Israel's offensive on the enclave continues.

The head of State went on to say he would introduce the proposal before the UN General Assembly, and should two thirds of member states approve it, they would then begin forming the force.

Petro said he would begin an inscription process for volunteers with military experience in the country, and he is willing to go there himself. "If the Colombian President, like Bolivar before, like Argentina's Ernesto Guevara, has to go to the battlefield in a foreign country to defend humanity, I'm willing to go," he said.

Petro's involvement in the protest led to the revoking of his visa by the Trump administration after he publicly called on soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump.

"From here, from New York, I ask all the soldiers of the army of the US not to point their rifles at humanity," Petro said in another passage of the protest. "Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity," he added.

The U.S. State Department quickly reacted, saying Petro's visa would be revoked "due to his reckless and incendiary actions."

Petro, in turn, said the decision "breaks all the norms of immunity on which the functioning of the United Nations and its General Assembly is based."