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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">African countries are challenging Israel's plot across the continent</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Dr Ramzy Baroud - March 21, 2023</div></div>
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<p>The sight of Israeli Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li and other Israeli delegates being <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/19/israeli-diplomat-walked-out-au-summit-amid-israel-status-row" target="_blank">escorted</a>
out of the opening ceremony of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa
on 18 February was historic. The very moment that was meant to crown
twenty years of Israeli diplomacy on the African continent turned within
a few seconds to represent Israel's failure in Africa.</p>
<p>Unable to fathom the breakdown of its diplomatic and political
efforts, Tel Aviv responded to Bar-Li's removal with a war of words
against African countries, accusing them of spearheading a campaign
aimed at blocking Israel's observer status. Referring to a "small number
of extremist states like South Africa and Algeria," a spokesperson for
the Israeli foreign ministry <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/19/israeli-diplomat-walked-out-au-summit-amid-israel-status-row" target="_blank">alluded</a> to a plot, supposedly hatched by Iran, and carried out by African governments that are "driven by hate" for Israel.</p>
<p>The undiplomatic nature of the ministry's language is a major shift
compared to the upbeat, diplomatic rhetoric used by Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Africa to speak at the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Liberia in 2017.
"Israel is coming back to Africa," <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>
Netanyahu, "and Africa is coming back to Israel." He added with a
theatrical flourish and emphasis on each syllable: "I believe in
Africa."</p>
<p>Netanyahu's reference to "coming back to Africa" was intended to
underscore two points: Israel's diplomatic and political return to
Africa; and an imagined return to the continent as a representation of a
shared historical experience.</p>
<p>On the latter, Netanyahu had made various references to some
drummed-up, shared anti-colonial struggle between Israel and African
countries. "Africa and Israel share a natural affinity," he <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/345669620041969/" target="_blank">claimed</a>
in his ECOWAS speech. "We have, in many ways, similar histories. Your
nations toiled under foreign rule. You experienced horrific wars and
slaughters. This is very much our history."</p>
<p>The diplomatic "return", on the other hand, is more real than
imagined. However, the diplomatic ties between Israel and many African
countries, <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2021/06/kwame-nkrumah-and-israel" target="_blank">starting</a>
with Ghana in 1956, took place under unique historical circumstances,
in which many African countries were still colonised, semi-independent
or largely reliant on their former colonisers. For example, Ghana-Israel
relations started when Ghana was still called Gold Coast. In fact, the
diplomatic accords with Tel Aviv at the time only took place when Gold
Coast received official approval from Britain, because it was still a
British colony.</p>
<p>Before 1973, Israel <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/israel-eyeing-ties-with-africa-in-exchange-for-know-how/1322963" target="_blank">had</a> full diplomatic ties with 33 African countries. Much of this changed in October of the same year. When Arab countries <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/10/8/the-october-arab-israeli-war-of-1973-what-happened" target="_blank">fought</a>
a war against Israel's colonial expansion, many African countries broke
ties with Israel in favour of maintaining their truly historic,
economic and spiritual ties with their Arab brethren. It was no wonder
that it was the Organisation of African Unity — the precursor to the
African Union — that first <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">identified</a> Israel's founding ideology, Zionism, as a form of racism in its 12th ordinary session held in Kampala in 1975.</p>
<p>The so-called "peace process" and the signing of the Oslo Accords
between Palestinian leaders and Israel weakened the stalwart African
position towards Palestine, not out of enmity to the Palestinians but
due to western pressure, and the misconception that peace and justice
had finally arrived in Occupied Palestine. It was against this very
backdrop that Netanyahu visited Africa and began his campaign for
normalisation with many African countries.</p>
<p>Israel's motives in Africa are clear: economic benefits and political
dividends, particularly pro-Israel votes at the UN. Years after
Israel's "return to Africa", though, the continent has neither benefited
from the lofty promises made by Tel Aviv to revitalise local economies
and fight desertification, nor, as a bloc, has it significantly changed
its votes at the UN, which tend to be in favour of Palestinian rights.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_337474" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/m6-4-2019-e1554717464121.jpg?resize=933%2C579&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="South Africa (Mandela) stands with Palestine - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="428" height="266"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">South Africa stands with Palestine – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]</p></div><p>Nevertheless,
for Netanyahu, the benefits outweigh the disappointments, especially as
Tel Aviv fully understands that Africa, more than ever since the <a href="https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/6031c3a2-ada9-42b4-8045-52006e2a2b07/the-berlin-conference-of-1884-1885/" target="_blank">Berlin Conference</a>
in 1884, has once again become a major contested geopolitical space.
That's where the breakdown of Israel's calculations happened, thus the
humiliating episode in Addis Ababa.</p>
<p>Following the removal of the Israeli delegates, Tel Aviv continued to
make a case based on technical grounds: that the Israeli ambassador had
the proper accreditation; that Israel was officially an observer member
of the AU; and so on.</p>
<p>Israel's observer status has caused a rift among AU members. Approval was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/19/israeli-diplomat-walked-out-au-summit-amid-israel-status-row" target="_blank">given</a>
unilaterally by the Chair of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, in
July 2021. As the news spread about Mahamat's personal decision, many
countries <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/african-union-summit-reverses-decision-on-israel-s-observer-status/2495481" target="_blank">protested</a>, and the status was frozen, pending a decision based on a proper democratic process.</p>
<p>Just two days after the Israeli delegation was removed from the summit, the AU — in fact, Mahamat himself — <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/20/african-union-says-israels-observer-status-suspended" target="_blank">announced</a>
to reporters on 20 February that Israel's membership status "is
suspended until such time as this committee can deliberate." He asserted
that, "We did not invite Israeli officials to our summit."</p>
<p>The Israeli response to all of this reflected a general sense of
confusion, if not desperation within Israeli diplomatic circles. African
countries, however, followed the incident with a clear policy position,
delineating that the decision to suspend Israeli membership was not a
technical or procedural one. It was, in the words of Clayson Monyela,
head of public diplomacy in South Africa's Department of International
Relations, "an issue of principle".</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a title="South Africa: parliament votes to downgrade embassy in Israel" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230308-south-africa-parliament-votes-to-downgrade-embassy-in-israel/">South Africa parliament votes to downgrade embassy in Israel</a></strong></p>
<p>Three weeks after the AU decision, the South African parliament <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/south-african-parliament-passes-resolution-to-downgrade-ties-with-israel/2842018" target="_blank">voted</a>
in favour of a motion that downgrades the country's embassy in Tel Aviv
to a mere liaison office. That, too, was a matter of principle, namely
as a "first step" that aims to pressure Israel "to comply with human
rights, recognise the rights of the Palestinian people (and) their right
to exist."</p>
<p>As geopolitical spaces open for countries in the Global South due to
changing global power dynamics, more countries are daring to step up to
challenge the hegemony of former colonial powers. Considering their
history of valiant anti-colonial struggles, it is no surprise that
African countries are leading this momentum toward national and regional
independence.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it took only six years for Africa to prove Netanyahu
wrong; to prove that the settler-colonial state of Israel "did not
return to Africa". What is true, however, is that Africa itself is
returning to its anti-colonial roots.</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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