Colombia stopped energy exports to Israel - so why did South Africa and Brazil not do so?

In July 2025, Colombian  President Gustavo Petro ordered his navy to block all coal supplies to Israel in response to the genocide in Gaza.

Only hours earlier, coal-laden vessel, the Maltese-flagged Fortune headed out from Puerto Drummond , taking supplies, mined by US company Drummond, to the Israeli port of Hadera, despite a decree Petro had issued in 2024, banning all exports.

It was able to do so because that earlier order contained a loophole that allowed mineral multinationals to honour existing contracts.

And so, on 28 August, a second decree took effect, choking off coal to Israel completely.

Petro was not taking any chances. "Not a ton of coal leaves for Israel, and I take responsibility," he pledged. Exports from Colombia, Israel’s biggest supplier of coal, dropped to zero within months.

In March the following year, Colombia co-chaired a meeting of 40 countries in The Hague under the auspices of The Hague Group , the umbrella organisation that seeks to enforce international law amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

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There, governments as diverse as China, Saudi Arabia and Spain committed to banning fuel exports to “prevent the transfer, transit, or carriage of arms, munitions, military fuel, and dual-use items to Israel - including through export restrictions, port controls, and flag-state responsibilities”.

'I think most of all, [coal-producing countries] are afraid of the backlash that could come from Israel's biggest partner in crime, which is the US'

-  Badra El Cheikh,

Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy

Yet exports to Israel have continued, including from countries whose officials signed the agreement.

They include South Africa , which co-chaired the meeting in The Hague and is the claimant in the landmark genocide case against Israel now before the International Court of Justice.

As Colombia cut its coal exports, South Africa stepped in to fill the gap, and its shipments to Israel soared by 87 percent.

Pretoria is not alone. Other signatories included Brazil, which indirectly funnelled 2.7m barrels of crude oil to Israel in 2024.

Campaigners pushing for a fuel embargo against Israel point to Petro’s ban as evidence that halting Israel’s supply of fuel is a matter of political will.

Badra El Cheikh, a representative of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD) based in Brazil, told MEE: “Without fuel the machine does not go on, there's no bombing. There's no fuel for the illegal settlements.

“I think most of all, they are afraid of the backlash that could come from Israel's biggest partner in crime, which is the US. They’re afraid of sanctions, and afraid of anything that the US might do against their economies.”

Ana Sanchez, general coordinator at Global Energy Embargo for Palestine (GEEP) , says that energy deals face less regulation under international law than arms sales, which have more of a tangible link to war crimes and are at least controlled by the Arms Trade Treaty.

“Governments and officials have said, if you impose an energy embargo, you are somehow targeting the civilian population,” she told MEE.

Colombia: How activists pushed for coal ban

Colombia has always been integral to Israel’s energy supplies, exporting coal for its electricity grid, which powers, among other things, illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Weeks after the start of Israel’s genocide in October 2023, Palestinian trade unions called for Bogota to halt energy exports, a demand backed by Sintracarbon, Colombia’s largest mineworkers’ union.

Exports were banned but coal giants, including Drummond and Anglo-Swiss coal company Glencore exploited the loophole in Petro’s ban and continued exporting.

The alarm was raised by a broad coalition including union workers, indigenous groups and BDS activists, which identified 28 Drummond ships that had beaten the ban and headed to Israeli ports between October 2024 and April 2025.

'In Colombia, we have one of the most progressive governments, not only in Latin America, but probably worldwide, with a strong commitment to justice'

- Ana Sanchez, Global Energy Embargo for Palestine

The second, decisive ban in August 2025 halted the flow of Colombian coal to Israel “without exception” as Petro put it. The government cited the UN Charter, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the regulations of the World Trade Organisation as legal backing for the decree.

Indigenous groups have been integral to the anti-export campaign. In late May 2025, two months before Petro’s blockade call, they picketed coal mines under the banner “No more coal for genocide”.

Indigenous leaders have highlighted how the extraction of Colombian coal to fuel Israel’s onslaught on Gaza represents a “double genocide” for both Palestinians and themselves.

In La Guaj…