In 2009, after an uninterrupted 59 years, Bolivian president Evo Morales severed the country's government-level ties with Israel for the first time, decrying the Palestinian death toll in the Israeli military's "Operation Cast Lead" in the Gaza Strip.

Following the outbreak of the 2014 Gaza War, Morales designated Israel as a "terrorist state" and cancelled the Bolivian–Israeli visa waiver agreement, which had been signed in 1972, while also promising to cut bilateral economic ties and ban all Israelis from visiting Bolivia.

In 2019, Morales resigned from the presidency under pressure from the then-ongoing Bolivian protests and was succeeded by Jeanine Áñez of the Social Democratic Movement, after which Bolivia restored diplomatic relations with Israel and several other countries.

The first official visit by one of the two countries was made by the Bolivian Minister of Finance Quadro Sanchez who came to Israel along with the President of the Central Bank of Bolivia Paz Anzeana from Istanbul at the invitation of the Israeli government.

[12] Following Operation Cast Lead in 2008–2009, Bolivia severed relations with Israel and expelled the Israeli ambassador Shlomo Cohen as well as seven members of the diplomatic mission, after the decision of President Evo Morales of the leftist Movement for Socialism party that came to power in 2006.

[19] This move came after Morales' resignation from the presidency, as he demonstrated pro-Iranian and anti-American positions, distancing himself from the Western world since taking office, after receiving political asylum in Mexico following widespread protests against his government, breaking into his home, and placing a bounty on his head.