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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210115-palestinians-need-a-centralised-strategy-to-counter-israel-in-africa-not-slogans/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210115-palestinians-need-a-centralised-strategy-to-counter-israel-in-africa-not-slogans/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Palestinians need a centralised strategy to counter Israel in Africa, not slogans</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Dr Ramzy Baroud - January 15, 2021<br></div></div><hr><div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div id="gmail-post-content"><p>Arab
normalisation with Israel is expected to have serious consequences that
go well beyond the limited and self-serving agendas of a few regional
countries. Thanks to the Arab normalisers, the doors are now flung wide
open for new political actors to extend or cement ties with Israel at
the expense of Palestine, without fear of any repercussions.</p><p>Many
African countries have worked diligently to integrate Israel into the
continent's mainstream body politic. They are now seizing the
opportunity to bring all states across the continent on board, including
those who have historically and genuinely stood on the side of the
Palestinians.</p><p>Empower Africa is an <a href="https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/israeli-firm-launches-business-network-rwanda" target="_blank">Israeli firm</a>
that is constantly seeking financial opportunities throughout Africa.
It was but one of many which jumped at the opportunity to exploit Arab
normalisation with Israel. The goal is to maximise profits while
promoting Arab normalisation as an economic opportunity for struggling
African economies. In December, Empower Africa <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/ae/news-releases/empower-africa-hosts-uae-and-israel-uniting-with-africa-event-in-dubai-865912011.html" target="_blank">hosted</a>
its first event in Dubai under the heading "UAE and Israel Uniting with
Africa". In its press release, the Israeli company said that its guests
included representatives from the UAE, Israel, Bahrain, Nigeria, Rwanda
and Egypt, among others.</p><p>Such events are meant to translate
normalisation with Israel into economic opportunities that will entangle
not only Arab countries, but also those in Africa and Asia, as well as
other traditional supporters of Palestine worldwide. The central message
that the advocates of normalisation are now sending to the rest of the
world is that closer ties with Tel Aviv will guarantee direct American
support and innumerable economic benefits.</p><p>Those who promote
solidarity with Palestine worldwide, based on moral maxims and
international law, are correct to argue that solidarity and
intersectionality are crucial in the fight against injustice everywhere.
However, realpolitik is rarely shaped by morality and legitimacy. This
is the truth that Palestinians now have to contend with, as they watch
their Arab and Muslim brothers moving, one after the other, towards the
Israeli camp.</p><p>Unfortunately,
it was the Palestinian leadership itself that strengthened the
normalisation argument many years ago, especially in the early 1990s,
when it first <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/03/world/meast/oslo-accords-fast-facts/index.html" target="_blank">agreed</a>
to negotiate unconditionally with Israel, under the auspices of the US
rather than exclusively through the UN. The Palestinian/Arab engagement
with Israel in the Madrid Talks in 1991 provided the impetus for
Washington to push for the reversal of a 1975 UN <a href="https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/761C1063530766A7052566A2005B74D1" target="_blank">Resolution</a> that equated Zionism with racism.</p><p>Ironically, it was the African Union that first championed UN Resolution 3379, soon after it passed its own <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/decisions/9522-assembly_en_july_28_01_august_1975_assembly_heads_state_government_thirteenth_ordinary_session.pdf" target="_blank">Resolution 77 (XII)</a>,
earlier that year in the Kampala Assembly of Heads of State and
Governments. The assembly condemned Zionism as a racist, colonial
ideology.</p><p>Those days are long gone and, sadly, it was the Middle
East and Africa that altered their views of Israel, without compelling
the latter to abandon its racist political doctrine in return. The
result is that racism and apartheid in Israel are now even more
entrenched within the country's official institutions than ever before.
Moreover, Israel's military occupation and siege of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip are accelerating in tandem with Arab and African
normalisation with the settler-colonial state.</p><p>The now dead in the
water 1993 Oslo Accords served as a major pretence for many countries
around the world, especially in the global South, to draw nearer to
Israel. "If the Palestinians themselves have normalised with Israel, why
shouldn't we?" was the knee-jerk retort from politicians in various
countries when approached by the advocates of the Palestinian boycott
movement. This immoral and politically selective logic has been
reinforced since the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco joined the Arab
normalisation camp in recent months.</p><div id="gmail-attachment_441701" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/12-12-2020-scaled.jpg?resize=933.5%2C580&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="A growing number of countries in the MENA region are normalising ties with Israel - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="417" height="259"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">A growing number of countries in the MENA region are normalising ties with Israel – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]</p></div><p>While
arguments that are predicated on moral values and shared history are
still very much valid, making a case against normalisation cannot rest
entirely on ethical reasoning or sentimentalities. True, the shared
anti-colonial past of Africa and the Arab world, especially that of
Palestine, is uncontested. Even so, some African countries did not side
with the Arabs in their conflict with colonial Israel based on entirely
moral and ideological arguments. Indeed, the Israel-Africa story has
also been shaped by overtly economic and business interests.</p><p>Africa's significance for Israel has acquired various meanings throughout the years. When it was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948" target="_blank">established</a>
upon the ruins of historic Palestine, diplomatic ties between the
nascent colonial state and African countries soon became essential for
Tel Aviv to break away from its geopolitical isolation in the region.
That, in addition to the strategic importance of the Bab Al-Mandab
Strait — separating Africa from the Arabian Peninsula and offering
Israel breathing space through the Red Sea — gave the continent
additional geostrategic significance.</p><p>In
fact, on the eve of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, 33 African countries had
full diplomatic ties with Israel. Immediately afterwards, and in the
run-up to the 1973 October War, they <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/7/23/israels-scramble-for-africa-selling-water-weapons-and-lies" target="_blank">abandoned</a>
Israel in large numbers, signalling the rise of an unprecedented
Arab-African unity, which continued unhindered until the 1990s. It was
then that Israel began, once more, to promote itself as a unique ally
across Africa.</p><p>In recent years, Israel has accelerated its plans
to exploit Africa's many political and economic opportunities,
especially as the continent is now an open house for renewed global
attention. The US, the EU, China, Russia and others are jockeying to win
a piece of Africa's massive wealth of material and human resources.
Israel, too, as a regional power, is part of this renewed "scramble for
Africa".</p><p>In 2016, Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/netanyahu-israel-is-coming-back-to-africa-and-africa-is-returning-to-israel-445825" target="_blank">said</a>
that, "Israel is coming back to Africa, and Africa is returning to
Israel." This should not be dismissed as political hyperbole by the
Israeli leader. It can be argued that Israel's burgeoning political and
economic ties with Africa are Netanyahu's greatest achievements in
recent years. Diplomatic <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-chad-ties-restored-israel-set-to-host-malis-pm-in-coming-weeks/" target="_blank">rapprochement</a>
with Muslim-majority African countries such as Mali and Chad, have been
the back door through which Israel has approached Arab-Muslim countries
in Africa, such as Sudan and Morocco.</p><p>There is more to Israel's
keen interest in Africa than mere business, of course. With America's
superpower status in the Middle East being challenged by other global
actors, namely Russia and China, Israel is trying to diversify its
options so that it is not reliant exclusively on a single benefactor.</p><p>Now
that Arab and Muslim countries are normalising with Israel openly and
discreetly, some African governments feel liberated from their previous
commitment to Palestine; they are no longer forced to choose between
their Arab allies and the occupation state.</p><p><strong>READ: <a title="Palestine slams sale of Israel settlement products in UAE" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210111-palestine-slams-sale-of-israel-settlement-products-in-uae/">Palestine slams sale of Israel settlement products in UAE</a></strong></p><p>Solidarity
with Palestine, on all traditional platforms, certainly stands to lose
as a result of these seismic changes. Even the UN General Assembly is no
longer a safe space for Palestinian solidarity. When the UN General
Assembly Resolution headed "Peaceful settlement of the question of
Palestine" was <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/peaceful-settlement-of-question-of-palestine-ga-resolution/" target="_blank">adopted</a>
on 3 December 2019, for example, 13 countries abstained from the vote,
including Cameroon, Rwanda, South Sudan and Malawi. This was
unprecedented. The trend worsened a year later, on 2 December 2020, when
more African countries <a href="https://www.un.org/en/ga/75/resolutions.shtml" target="_blank">abstained</a>
from voting on a similar resolution, with Cameroon, Madagascar, Malawi,
Rwanda and even South Africa refusing to acknowledge what should have
been a straightforward recognition of Palestinian rights.</p><p>Based on
this disturbing trajectory, more African countries are expected either
to adopt a "neutral" position on Palestine and Israel or, depending on
the nature of their interests or degree of US-Israeli pressure, take
Israel's side in future votes.</p><p>The Palestinian dichotomy rests on
the fact that African solidarity with Palestine has historically been
placed within the larger political framework of mutual African-Arab
solidarity. Yet, with official Arab solidarity with Palestine now
weakening, Palestinians are forced to think outside this traditional
framework, so that they may build direct solidarity with African nations
as Palestinians, without necessarily merging their national aspirations
with the larger Arab body politic.</p><p>While such a task is daunting,
it is also promising, as Palestinians now have the opportunity to build
bridges of support and mutual solidarity in Africa through direct
contacts, where they serve as their own ambassadors. Obviously,
Palestine has much to gain, but also much to offer Africa. Palestinian
doctors, engineers, civil defence and frontline workers, educationists,
intellectuals and artists are some of the most highly qualified and
accomplished in the Middle East; in fact, in the world.</p><p>Palestine
must develop a centralised strategy to counter Israel in Africa, not
just slogans. It must utilise its people's tremendous energies and
expertise to win Africa back to the anti-colonial cause, not as a
bargaining chip, but as an authentic attempt to reinvigorate existing
solidarity between the Palestinians and the peoples of Africa.</p><p>Israel
is trying to lure Africa's elites through business deals which, judging
by previous experiences, could become a burden on African economies.
Palestine, on the other hand, can offer Africa genuine friendship and
support across many areas of meaningful cooperation which, in the long
run, can turn existing historical and cultural affinities into deeper,
more practical solidarity and development.</p><p>The views expressed in
this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the
editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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