New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS): The ongoing Hamas-Israel war has revealed that there is no consensus in the positions of the African Union (AU) and its member states AS most African nations did not heed the bloc’s call in February to “end all direct and indirect trade, scientific and cultural exchanges with the State of Israel”.
Some African nations took positions criticising the October 7 Hamas attack and declared their support for Israel and its operations in Gaza, while others reiterated their support for the Palestinians and called for a ceasefire.
There are also African nations that adopt "neutrality" by remaining silent or calling for a two-state solution as proposed by the UN, says Hakeem Alade Najimdeen, a Nigerian researcher specialising in social foundations, leadership and political developments in Africa.
Writing for Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Najimdeen said the positions of some sub-Saharan African governments differ from those of their citizens, as a large percentage of the region’s population—especially in the Muslim majorities and academics and some media analysts—supports the Palestinians and holds Israel responsible for what is happening in Gaza as a result of the Hamas’s attack.
Some countries in the region believe that establishing diplomatic relations or commercial dealings with Israel will not affect their historical position against Israel and its activities in the Gaza Strip.
South Africa, Djibouti and Somalia are among the countries in the region that support Palestinian liberation movements explicitly and publicly. South Africa’s stance is not new.
Nelson Mandela, the first post-apartheid president of South Africa, reiterated his support for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) despite it being considered a terrorist organisation at the time by the US and Israel, the article said.
It is worth noting that South Africa today is Israel's largest trading partner on the continent.
The country also trades with Palestine, especially in olive oil.
However, its authorities took every opportunity to criticise Israel and Western double standards. In fact, the South African Foreign Ministry has pointed out the Western double standard during increasing Western pressure on South Africa and other African countries to condemn Moscow for the Russia-Ukraine war, criticising the West's unwillingness to apply the same principles of international law when it comes to Israel's activities in the Palestinian territories.
In 2022, the South African Foreign Minister asked the United Nations to declare Israel an “apartheid state”, the article said.
It is no surprise, then, that the leaders of countries such as Cameroon,Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congohave shown their support for Israel and condemned Hamas’s “terrorism” and attacks on innocent civilians. While this might indicate the level of Israel’s increasing influence, it is also a clear declaration of a decline in appreciation for history and colonial experiences and a signal that they are fed up with secret normalisation or conducting dealings with Israel behind the curtain, the article said.
In the case of Cameroon, which has expressed steadfast support for Israel since the start of the ongoing war, President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country since 1982, is considered one of Israel's strongest allies in sub-Saharan Africa; and his country was one of the first to resume relations with Israel in 1986. The Cameroonian government still refuses to recognise the existence of the Palestinian state; and Israel has a major role in strengthening Biya’s rule through his personal security and leadership of the elite military unit known as the Rapid Intervention Battalion (Bataillon d'Intervention Rapide), it added.
Solidarity with Israel might also have been influenced by the recent strategies of the US and other Western countries to link their financial “aid” and trade deals with the need to recognise Israel. This is confirmed by what was revealed in a reportthat the US made support for Israeli political and commercial interests one of the conditions of the trade deal with Kenya, one of the West’s trusted allies, which enjoys continued support from Washington. Also, Ghana, whose relations with Israel go back to pre-independence under British colonialism, is looking for investment and ways of financing various related projects, in addition to the Accra Initiative which seeks to combat terrorism that is expanding from the Sahel region and threatening countries like Benin, Ivory Coast and Togo, the article said.
In addition, Rwanda is one of the countries that has supported Israel in recent years; and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is strengthening its diplomatic relations with it. Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are among the leaders said to have facilitated the process of recognizing Israel and granting it observer status in the AU in 2021.
There are also other sub-Saharan African countries whose position on the Israel Hamas’s fluctuates between “neutrality” and remaining silent. This may be due to many factors, including the fear of the repercussions, especially as a percentage of some of these countries’ budgets depends on “aid” and/or other interests with the West. It may also be because of their fear of losing their political positions due to the involvement of Israel’s allies in their rise to power, the article said. Another factor may be that they do not want to violate their political principles or go against the views of their citizens, thereby avoiding inciting religious and ethnic conflict among their populaces. There are also countries whose internal economic and political crises distract them from paying more attention to what is happening outside their borders, or declaring their positions.
Ethiopia, for example, was one of the African countries expected to declare its support for Israel due to the long historical relations between them. However, Addis Ababa did not clarify a specific position on the crisis. Perhaps what contributed to this is that it only recently emerged from the Tigray War and is currently witnessing another conflict in Amhara, in addition to drought, which has exacerbated its food crises. The US is its largest donor, providing $1.8 billion in humanitarian aid in 2022 alone.
African countries’ positions on the Israel-Hamas war are shaped by historical ties, strategic interests and humanitarian concerns, as per Africa report.
Few African leaders have spoken openly about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Those who have, maintain a firm stance on their divergent positions.
Reactions have been mixed with analysts suggesting positions are not only based on relationships with Israel and Palestine, which include government interests, but also the individual historical context of each African country.
Cameroon, DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia are the African countries that stand with Israel. Israel is an attractive partner for many African governments mainly because of itsadvanced defence technologyand its position as a global leader in theagricultural sector, Africa Report said.
Take Rwanda, where Israel’s Gigawatt Global developed the first utility-scale solar photovoltaic facility in East Africa in 2015, or Cameroon, where Israeli-based NUFiltration installed water decontamination systems in 2018.
Algeria, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia are the countries that have supported Palestinian people. On Monday, South Africa’s minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that the country is recalling its diplomatic staff from Tel Aviv, referring to the conflict as “another holocaust”. The move came days after Chad recalled its ambassador to Israel.
Before that, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) had already made its position clear: “It can no longer be disputed that South Africa’sapartheid history is occupied Palestine’s reality,” said ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri in a statement on 8 October, Africa report said.
Algeria’s foreign ministry also took to X to show its support for the Palestinian people in a statement. “Algeria strongly condemns the brutal air strikes by the Zionist [Israeli] occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, and which caused many casualties, including children and women.”
Another member of The Arab League, Tunisia, called on the international community to “stand with the Palestinian people, and to remember the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy to our Arab people in Palestine”.
In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi came out in mid-October, professing‘unwavering support’for Palestinians, but concerns remain in the country regarding the possible influx of refugees.
The message coming from the pro-Palestinian corner is clear – this is not war, this is genocide, Africa Report said.
Nigeria and Uganda, while not remaining silent, have remained decidedly neutral.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has voiced his support for a ‘two-state solution’ while a statement from Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged both sides to “exercise restraint” and “prioritise the safety of civilians”.
But Israel’s ties to Africa go back further than that. In the late 1950s and 1960s, then foreign minister Golda Meir conducted an intense diplomatic campaign across the continent and by the end of the decade had established solid diplomatic relationships with at least 30 African countries, Africa Report said.
Meir’s campaign purportedly aimed to show support for the anti-colonial movement sweeping the continent at the time.
“Did we go into Africa because we wanted votes at the United Nations? Yes, of course that was one of our motives – and a perfectly honourable one – which I never, at any time, concealed either from myself or from Africans,” Meir says in her autobiography, as per Africa Report.