Protesting for Palestine

A man waves a Palestinian flag today near the Parque Nacional in Bogotá.

Pro-Palestinian activists waved flags and handed out white flowers today in front of the Parque Nacional, in condemnation of recent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

A woman in Islamic dress hands out
white flowers in front of the
Parque Nacional in Bogotá.

Certainly, one's heart goes out to these people. The conflict, however, isn't so simple. If Hamas hadn't started firing rockets at Israel, then Israel wouldn't have fired back. However, Israel's response does seem very disproportionate, and it also seems to me that long-time injustices by Israel against Palestinians feed the anger.

Colombia has small, but apparently growing, Islamic and Arabic communities. Enough, in fact, to justify the construction recently of a large mosque in north Bogotá. Many of the protesters I spoke with were Colombian-born women who had converted to Islam, presumably in order to marry Moslem immigrants.

While Colombia has never experienced immigration on the same scale as other South American nations, during the early 20th century immigrants from Lebanon and Syria settled on Colombia's Caribbean coast, particularly in the city of Barranquilla. Most of those people were apparently either already Catholic or later converted. The best-known Colombian of Arabic heritage is undoubtedly Shakira, whose father moved here from Lebanon, via New York. Today, the trading town of Maicao on the Venezuelan border feels like a little piece of the Middle East.

Demonstrators hold a Palestinian flag.

A pro-Palestine demonstrator hands out white flowers to symbolize children killed in the Gaza Strip.

'Neither Islamic fundamentalism nor imperialism.' A mural near Bogotá's Cementerio Central.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Is Klein Coming Clean?

Yair Klein, the Israeli mercenary who trained Colombian paramilitaries during the 1980s and '90s, is talking to Colombian journalists in Israel, where he's at a safe distance from a ten-year prison sentence given him by a Colombian court.

Klein claims that his activities - training outlaw paramilitary groups - were approved of by the Colombian government and also the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Klein made his statements in the book 'The Klein Case: The Origins of Paramiltarism' (El Caso Klein: El origen del paramilitarismo), by Colombian journalists Olga Behar and her daughter Carolina Ardilla.

Of course, Klein has a strong self-interest in making these claims, which would give a veneer of legality to his actions - altho they don't change the fact that the groups he trained committed horrific human rights violations, including chainsaw massacres.

Still, Klein is believable. For many years, it was an open secret that Colombia's military collaborated with right-wing paramilitaries and let them do the military's dirty work.

But Klein's excuse that he believed he was training people for no more than innocent self-defense against guerrillas sound like the worst sort of self-deception - at best. After all, during his years in Colombia violence by left- and right-wing organizations, as well as narcotrafficking groups, was widespread. And his comments also contain a chilling historical echo. After all, Klein's own nation Israel was founded to a large degree by survivors of the Holocaust - a crime committed in many cases by men and women who claimed they were just following orders or didn't know the consequences of their actions.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Israel and Palestine Intersect in Bogotá

'Colombia supports dialogue.' The guy's subtext: Don't recognize a Palestinian state.

This morning, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas asked Colombian Pres. Juan Manuel Santos to back the creation of an independent Palestinian state, supporters of both Israel and Palestine held neighboring - and at points even mixing - demonstrations on Plaza Bolívar.

'No to terrorist Israel.'

After the meeting, Pres. Santos promised to use Colombia's "good offices" to promote peace in the Middle East. As a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Colombia is in a strategic position on this, and lots of other issues. However, Colombia has historically close ties to Israel, altho not always healthy ones, making it unlikely to endorse the Palestinian cause.

The supporters of Israel and Palestine today waved their respective flags and chanted. But I saw one banner calling Israel a 'terrorist state' - not a good way to start out negotiations.

On the positive side, the twin demonstrations coexisted peacefully. Hopefully, one day soon the Israeli and Palestinian states can do the same.

A Palestinian flag. 

Waving Israel flags. 

Supporters of Israel and Palestine might be appealing for the support of Simon Bolívar, whose statue stands in the plaza's center. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Colombia and the Middle East

Colombia loves Israel? Someone changed a 'does not equal' sign into a heart
in this graffiti in La Candelaria. 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is in Colombia right now seeking Bogotá's support for an independent Palestinian state. And he's got his work cut out for him because of Colombia's close relationships with both Israel and the United States, both of which say they support an independent Palestine - but just not yet. Colombia has taken a similar position.

Mahmoud Abbas: he's got
work to do in Colombia.

Colombia and Israel have historically had a close - but also troubled and sometimes murky - relationship, rooted in their common problems with terrorism. Colombia has purchased lots of weapons from Israel, including fighter planes and some of the rifles toted by soldiers guarding government buildings in La Candelaria. Israel also sent Colombia aid after last year's devastating floods and has provided military advisors.

But the relationship has also had a very dark side. Israeli military veterans, working privately, reportedly have trained Colombian paramilitaries, who have committed some of the worst atrocities the country's long armed conflict. (Other instructors came from the U.S., Britain and Australia.) One of Colombia's most notorious paramilitary leaders, Carlos Castaño, took courses in paramilitary and counterinsurgency tactics in Israel, and later said "I copied the concept of paramilitary forces from the Israelis." And Yair Klein, an Israeli former lieutenant colonel who later established a private mercenary training company, trained Colombian paramilitaries. A Colombian court tried Klein in absentia and sentenced him to 11 years in prison for training terrorists, but Colombia's efforts to extradite Klein have failed. Klein has said that he worked in Colombia with the Colombian government's consent. While that may very well be true, it can't justify aiding an organization whose crimes have rivaled in depravity, if not in scale, to the Nazis'.

Some left-wing critics have made parallels between the geopolitical situations of Israel and Colombia, both of which are close U.S. allies surrounded by ideologically hostile neighbors. But that is where the parallels end. The two nations' histories, dynamics and issues are fundamentally different. On the positive side, both nations are democracies, albeit imperfect ones.

This blogger believes that the Palestinians, like the Kurds, Basques, Tibetians and many other peoples dearly deserve their own independent nations. But the terrorism used in favor of some of these peoples' causes have hurt their chances. The Palestinians should recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce terrorism. Israel should stop building settlements in Palestinian territory, abandon lots of those settlements, and give the Palestinians part of Jerusalem to use as their capital. Jerusalem could become some sort of international city, perhaps administered by the United Nations.

That's my two cents, in case anybody's listening.

Abbas got a warm reception and support in Bogotá's city hall - which wasn't surprising, since it's ruled by the leftist Polo Democratico Party. But Abbas will have a tougher time with Pres. Santos, who's been lobbied by the Israeli government to oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.

Here's a blog entry about the Israeli and Palestinian demonstrations on Plaza Bolivar.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Jair Klein - Free?

Scot Free?

Israeli mercenary Yair Klein allegedly trained Colombian (and Lebanese) paramilitaries, as well as cocaine king Pablo Escobar's hitmen, who went on to commit massacres. Colombia convicted him en absentia for his crimes here.

In 2007, Klein was arrested in Russia, and there followed a three-year legal battle by Colombia to extradite him. However, the European Court of Human Rights issued an opinion that Klein's rights would be endangered in Colombia. This October, Russian officials decided to follow the court's recommendation and return Klein to Israel, Klein's lawyer just told the Jerusalem Post.

Bones from a mass grave of paramlitary victims.

The case is packed with ironies - the first being this mercenary who has allegedly collaborated with horrendous human rights violations in Colombia, Africa and likely other areas, appealing for mercy on human rights grounds. Most likely, Klein is right when he says he came here train paramilitaries with the blessing of the Colombian government. But does that justify his collaboration? Wasn't obedience to government the defense used by many Nazi war criminals?

It's even more ironic - and sad - to see parts of the Israeli government defending this man, even if he is 'something of a war hero,' as one Israeli tells me. After all, Israel's creation was in great degree a response to state-sponsored massacres.

In January 2011, Colombia asked Israel to extradite Klein. Klein claims that Colombian government officials had invited him to come here and that he didn't know that he was training bad guys.



By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours