By Osoro Nyawangah, MWANZA
Tanzania
Israel’s recent admission to the African Union (AU) as an observer has prompted a strong backlash from the Member States of the African bloc.
The chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, accepted the credentials of the Israeli diplomat, Aleli Admasu, on 22 July, allowing him to become an observer at the AU. Admasu is also Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia, Burundi and Chad.
The Ethiopia-based AU is a continental bloc that represents all 55 Member States, most of whom suffered terribly at the hands of repressive colonialists. The organization was a common front to forge socio-political progress among members.
This decision by the AU
Commission to grant the State of Israel an observer status, a
move that had been rejected for nearly two decades, has triggered criticism
with several African countries saying its admission is incompatible with the
values and principles of the AU charter.
Many are demanding an
“explanation and outright reversal” of the decision.
Israel, however, is
delighted with this milestone when it acknowledged that “this is a day of
celebration for Israel-Africa relations,” noting that the achievement “corrects
the anomaly that has existed for almost two decades.”
“Israel’s observer
status will enable greater cooperation, among other things, in the fight
against Corona and the prevention of the spread of extremist terrorism
throughout the continent,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Pleased by its
decision, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was quick to congratulate the AU “for its leadership in
building bridges and creating new avenues for exchange,” adding that the
country welcomes “Israel’s return to the African Union as an observer as part
of our support for broader normalization.”
Joining the African Union is a diplomatic goal Israel had been working to achieve for nearly two decades. It attained observer status at the African Union on July 22, after 19 diplomatic efforts.
It had previously held observer status at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) but was long thwarted in its attempts to get it back after the OAU was disbanded in 2002 and replaced by the AU.
Israel has
serially rejected African immigrants, but it has identified
deepening political ties with Africa as a key foreign policy priority.
Seeking the observer status at AU, analysts believe, is part of a broader diplomatic manoeuvre to gain transatlantic support, build strategic cooperation and access African markets.
The key objective
behind Israel’s longstanding effort to gain access to the AU has been
undermining Palestinian efforts to influence the continental stance on the
situation in Israel/Palestine and, by implication, the stance of independent
African states on the matter.
Meanwhile, Palestine
has long had observer status in the African Union.
Mahmoud Abbas, the
Palestinian president, is regularly given the opportunity to address the organization's summits.
For decades, African
countries have supported the Palestinian liberation struggle against Israel,
seeing in it parallels with their own anti-colonial movements.
Likewise, the African
Union has not hesitated to criticize Israeli international law violations and
the occupation of Palestinian lands.
Most recently, in May, Faki, chairperson of the AU, condemned Israel’s war on Gaza and its violent
attacks against Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Although the decision
of the African Union Commission to include Israel as an observer member of the
organization was taken without consulting most of the members, the union
assured that it will not have any impact on its decisions.
“The decision will not
affect the position of the African Union and its firm and effective support
of the continental organization towards the Palestinian cause, and its
commitment to embodying the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian
people, including their right to establish their independent state with
Jerusalem as its capital.”
It added that the
systems of the African Union do not give any possibility for the 87 observer
states outside Africa to influence the positions of the continental
organization whose determination stems from the exclusive prerogative of the
member states.
At his July meeting
with Adamsu, Faki stressed the AU’s position over the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, reiterating the bloc’s stance that a two-state
solution was “necessary for a peaceful co-existence.”
He emphasized that the
path towards long-lasting peace and stability requires that the peace process
and the solutions sought must not only be acceptable but must guarantee the
rights of all parties.
Israeli authorities
have committed crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians, global
advocacy group, Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in an April report.
The 213-page report provided a “descriptive or
comparative” analysis in relation to Israel and the occupied Palestinian
territories and as a warning of what might happen if current trajectories with
regard to Palestinians continue.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the HRW argued that based on existing
international law, the overarching Israeli policy toward Palestinians in the
West Bank and East Jerusalem constituted an agenda to both maintain Jewish
Israeli domination and systematically oppress Palestinians.
“The Israeli government
has demonstrated an intent to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over
Palestinians across Israel and the occupied Palestinians territory,” the report
stated.
Israel, on its part,
has argued that it has the right to defend itself against attacks from
Palestinian territories.
Often time, when
hostilities start between Israeli troops and Palestinian Hamas militants,
civilian casualties are recorded in hundreds, mostly on the Palestinian side.
Citing the war, some
African Union Member States criticized Israel’s observer status. Seven
African-Arab countries including Algeria, Egypt, Comoros, Tunisia, Djibouti,
Mauritania and Libya reportedly delivered a verbal note to Faki
rejecting the admittance of Israel into the AU.
“Taken without the
benefit of broad prior consultations with all member states, this decision has
neither the vocation nor the capacity to legitimize the practices and behaviors
of the said new observer which are totally incompatible with the values,
principles, and objectives enshrined in the ‘Constitutive Act of the African
Union,” Algerian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The recent decision of
the President of the Commission of the African Union (AU) to welcome a new
observer who falls under its administrative prerogatives is not likely to alter
the constant and active support of the continental organization to the just
Palestinian cause,” the statement read in part.
Similarly, the Namibian
international relations minister in an interview with Namibian Sun, said the
approval did not meet the basic principles of the AU.
“We are rejecting that
approval because it does not meet the basic principles of the African Union,
which includes the right to self-determination,” he was quoted as saying.
In the same vein, South
Africa called the move “shocking” and said it was “appalled” by the African
Union Commission’s decision to grant Israel observer status in the African
bloc.
It said the “unjust and unwarranted” move was taken
“unilaterally without consultations with its members.”
Another Southern
African country, Botswana, said the issue is a “sensitive matter” that should
have been brought to the attention of all AU Member States before a decision
was reached.
This is also because of
the longstanding conflict between Israel and Palestine, Botswana’s ministry of international
relations said.
Mozambique has joined
the growing list of African countries protesting against the decision to grant
Israel observer status at the African Union.
A statement from the
Mozambican embassy in Addis Ababa, published in Thursday’s issue of the
independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, protested at Mahamat’s decision.
It said that such a sensitive matter demanded consultation with all the AU
member states, rather than a unilateral decision by the Commission.
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