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The South American nation is only the second country to recognise Israel’s claims over the illegally annexed Syrian territory.

Colombia has become only the second country to recognise Israel’s claim of sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, just days after far-right President Abelardo de la Espriella took power.

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry made the announcement on Monday, joining the United States as the only other country to recognise Israel’s annexation of the territory in 1981.

“The Government of Colombia recognises Israeli sovereignty over this territory, as well as that State’s right to protect itself against external threats,” read a statement published on X.

“Colombia recognises that maintaining Israel’s control and sovereignty over the Golan Heights is an essential component of its national defence,” it added.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar thanked his “good friend” de la Espriella for the “historic” recognition.

He said the pair had agreed on the move in the Colombian city of Barranquilla a day before de la Espriella’s inauguration.

Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, before illegally annexing the territory in 1981. The move was rejected by most of the international community, although the US formally recognised Israel’s claim in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office.

The United Nations recognises the region as a part of Syria, and last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated that stance, describing Israeli occupation as “totally unacceptable”.

Syria tried to regain the Golan in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, but was thwarted. Israel and Syria signed an armistice in 1974, and the Golan has been relatively quiet since.

Colombia’s recognition of the Israeli claim comes as Israel expands its military footprint in Syria following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024. Israel has moved troops into a UN-monitored buffer zone and seized strategic territories, including the Syrian side of Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon), which overlooks the capital, Damascus.

De La Espriella, the new Colombian president, ran a bombastic campaign during which he promised close relations with the US and Israel as a way to combat armed groups in his country.

The US-backed millionaire has promised to restore Bogota’s ties with Israel after his predecessor, Gustavo Petro, criticised Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, severed diplomatic relations and halted Israeli arms imports.

De La Espriella has also cancelled Petro’s plans to open an embassy in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The UK media has been accused of giving far-right leader Nigel Farage an easy ride. Now, social media influencers are fact checking his anti-immigration rhetoric. Nigel Farage resigned as an MP after an investigation into his finances triggering a by-election.
Al Jazeera’s Antoine Allen spoke to the influencers

Al Jazeera’s Nils Adler @nilsadler1 reports on how far-right ‘Active Clubs’ use fitness and camaraderie to recruit young white men while masking extremist ideology. Experts warn the decentralized groups are preparing members for real-world violence.

Hundreds of residents in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta gathered to oppose a planned far-right anti-migrant rally, forcing organisers to cancel the event amid heightened tensions following a temporary influx of migrants crossing from Morocco.

A French court ruling allows the leader of the far-right National Rally to run for president next April. It reduced and suspended Marine Le Pen’s prison sentence and ban on seeking public office, while upholding her conviction over a European Parliament jobs scam.

She will have to wear an electronic monitor for a year while on house arrest. Le Pen has said it will prevent her from campaigning and plans to challenge the decision in France’s highest court. But she is leading in opinion polls.

Will her candidacy take her all the way to the Elysee Palace? Or will voters who are wary of Le Pen’s nationalist, anti-migrant policies unite around a common rival, as they have in the past?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Bruno Cautres – Professor at the Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po

Rim-Sarah Alouane – Legal scholar specialising in civil liberties and constitutional law

Victor Mallet – Senior editor and former Paris bureau chief at The Financial Times and author of the book Far-Right France: Le Pen, Bardella and the Future of Europe

July 4 (UPI) — Thousands of protesters on Saturday blocked roads in Erfurt, Germany, in an effort to prevent members of the far right Alternative fur Deutschland party from meeting.

The gathering of the party’s delegates to choose new leaders garnered the large protest at least partially because of the date of the conference, which coincides with the date that Adolf Hitler introduced the Hitler Youth, as well as the Hitler salute, The Guardian reported.

The AfD, which finished with roughly 20% of the vote in the most recent German federal election, has been regarded by many in Germany to be too extremist, with Politico reporting that other European far-right parties — including France’s National Rally — have cut ties with it.

“Who’s making headlines today? WE ARE,” the anti-AfD group Widersetzen, which organized the protests, said in a post on Instagram.

“Who’s hiding in glass halls?” the group said in its post. “The fascists of the AfD. 17,000 people in the blockades and the tens of thousands in the demonstrations are a powerful counterforce. We are ready to stand up for social justice and security.”

In a speech, AfD national leader Alice Weidel said that “troublemakers out there at the door: you won’t bring us down.”

The protesters, as well as many historians and politicians, in Germany said that AfD deliberately held its conference on the centennial of the Nazi conference in Weimar where Hitler introduced both the youth “movement” and salute.

The party previously has been accused of racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim policies, as well as downplaying Nazi actions during their rule in Germany and World War II.

Protesters from unions, civil society and left-wing parties aim to disrupt AfD annual conference in Erfurt.

Thousands of opponents of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have blocked roads leading to the party’s annual conference ahead of regional elections.

An estimated 20,000 people flocked to Erfurt, in Thuringia state, on Saturday, according to German police.

Protesters from unions, civil society groups and left-wing parties gathered in the centre of the city, some 250km (155 miles) southwest of the capital, Berlin. The police also reported several street blockades.

“We want to make it clear that we simply won’t tolerate this, that fascism is on the rise here in Germany,” Georg Becker, a spokesperson for Widersetzen (“Resist”), an anti-AfD umbrella group, told the Reuters news agency.

Large numbers of police, including reinforcements from across Germany, were deployed ahead of the AfD’s two-day conference. Police told the dpa news agency they counted more than 200 buses of protesters arriving in Erfurt.

Protesters blocked routes into the city, with some abseiling from a motorway bridge. Several groups staged sit-in blockades around the city centre, the AFP news agency said. The Associated Press reported that some protesters clashed with police in riot gear.

Still, most AfD delegates managed to reach the conference centre where party representatives said the congress began on time despite the protests.

‘Anti-democratic’ and ‘extremist’ views

AfD became the second largest party in elections last year, scoring the best result for a far-right party since World War II.

Opinion polls suggest that the party has opened a clear lead over German Chancellor Friedrich ‌Merz’s ⁠conservatives, partially driven by years of economic stagnation. AfD seems likely to take power at a state level for the first time in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, paving the way for more success at a national level.

Although AfD has grown in popularity, it remains controversial. All mainstream parties have ruled out cooperating with AfD over “anti-democratic” and “extremist” views.

AfD has also been monitored by the domestic intelligence agency for several years on suspicion of anti-constitutional activities.

Protesters in Erfurt want the party banned.

Noa Sander, another spokesperson for the Resist protest alliance told AFP, “The AfD wants mass deportations and ethnic cleansing,” in reference to the party’s “remigration” demands.

“It should be banned. We intend to do this by blockading their party conference and standing in the way of the AfD, its policies and members wherever they appear, making sure they have no place in society.” Sander said.