With the start of the 21th century, Israeli regime managed to strike economic and security deals with African countries, but Gaza war that started with Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Storm in response to Israeli atrocities has overshadowed these relations.
African-Israeli divergence begins to shape
After October 7 developments and Hamas operation against the Israeli settlements in Gaza Envelope, just contrary to the expectation of Israelis who wanted to see global condemnations, only a few African countries condemned the operation and a majority of the 54 African countries chose to be silent to this heavy Israeli intelligence failure.
Togo, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal, which are all economic and security partners of Israel, condemned the attack, expressed sympathy with the Israeli leaders and sent messages of condolence to Tel Aviv. The government of Ghana declared its firm support for the Israeli regime and Cameron sent an official message of condolence to the leaders of Tel Aviv.
But after the Israeli army invaded Gaza and the regime's crimes against civilians and the humanitarian situation in this besieged strip went to alarming levels, the support of a handful of African states completely was withdrawn and Chad, which had normalized its relations with Tel Aviv in 2019, became the first African nation summoning its chargé d'affaires from Tel Aviv for consultation.
In 2020, the foreign minister of Chad, speaking about his country's position on the Palestinian conflict, said that the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel will not affect Chad's position on the case of Palestine and the occupied Arab lands in any way. That thought was the driving force behind the country not turning a blind eye to the Israeli crimes in Gaza.
Among Africans, South Africa's position against the crimes of the occupation army was examplar, which more clearly referred the case of Israeli genocide in Gaza to the International Criminal Court and managed to win support and company of dozens of other countries to advance its anti-Israeli case.
Israelis' entry to newly-independent Africa
The Israeli regime, which was surrounded by Arab countries in the first decades of its establishment, had counted on the newly independent African countries to get out of this political isolation, and for this reason, it started seeking a foothold and new allies in Africa since the beginning of anti-colonial and pro-indrpendence struggles of African nations.
After the African states gained their independence in the early 1960s, Tel Aviv found potential partners in the new regimes and turned to the diplomatic path invoking the "suffering society" policy, especially to sub-Saharan Africa, and several inked cooperation agreements with Ethiopia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Chad and Central African Republic.
Subsequently, kibbutzes, or Israeli settlements depending for their economy on agriculture, became destinations for study trips for the citizens of these countries.
As the time went by, Israel since 2002 was invited to all Africa unity forums and AU meetings on Palestine.
However, despite Israel's comprehensive efforts to establish partnership with Africa, many of these countries still prioritized support for Palestine. In 1971, during the Dakar summit in the capital of Senegal, African countries condemned the failure of the UN representative Gunnar Jaring's mission to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict and voted in favor of the UN resolution 242 that condemned usurpation of Arab lands by the Israeli regime in 1967 after the six-day war.
While a committee consisting of ten heads of state (Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zaire) was formed under the leadership of Senegalese President Léopold Sedar Senghor to advance a two-state solution, in November 1971 Golda Meir, the prime minister of the Israeli regime at the time, in a warning letter to President of Democratic Republic of Congo Mobutu Sese Seko described these actions as running counter to the relations between Tel Aviv and Africans.
The gaps continued to deepen between the two sides the next years, and after 1973 Arab-Israeli war, almost all African countries, except for Mallawi, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, and apartheid regime of South Africa severed ties with Israel.
In Tunisia, President Habib Buraguiba, as one of the supporters of the two-state solution, hosted Palestinian Liberation Organizatithe (PLO) after its expulsion from Lebanon. The bombing of the headquarters of the PLO by Israel in 1985 in Tunisia and the assassination of Abu Iyad, the second leader of this organization, led to the strengthening of pro-Palestinian sentiments among the Tunisian people to the point that after four decades, Tunisian President Kais Saied considers normalization with the Israeli regime as a big betrayal.
In July 2021, Moussa Faki Mahamat, the head of the African Union Commission, in a political move, expressed his desire to grant Israeli regime the observer status in the AU, similar to what Palestine had since 2013, but South Africa at the annual meeting of the union held in Addis Ababa considered this decision unfair and unjustified because it was not considered in accordance with its rules, and for this reason, in response to these positions, it left the meeting early.
Perhaps the failure of Moussa Faki Mahamat's effort can be considered a heavy failure for a decade of diplomacy to return Israel to Africa. Over the past decade, the regime's cabinets have tried to rebuild relations with Africa, relying on trade interactions, security and military agreements, and technological cooperation. Trade with Africa accounts only for 1.5 percent of Israel's foreign trade (about $1.3 billion), the largest share of which is for South Africa ($241 million of Israel's exports for the first 9 months of 2023). But Tel Aviv business circles sees great potential for growth in trade with Africa, especially in the technology and digital sectors (cyber security, e-health, communications).
However, all of these decade-long efforts were shattered by Hamas's attack, and one example is diplomatic chill of the two countries sides. In June 2017 and on the sidelines of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) summit that was held with presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Liberia, Tel Aviv managed to resume its diplomatic relations with Senegal and tipped a fundamental change to policy of this Islamic country that in 1967 granted PLO head Yasser Arafat diplomatic passport and voted affirmatively to the UN Security Council’s resolution condemning the Israeli occupation.
However, the government of Senegal now adopts its positions completely according to the anti-Israeli camp, as the Prime Minister of this country, Ousmane Sonko, participated in an anti-Israeli rally in Dakar in September this year, calling for the unity of the Islamic world in sanctioning the Tel Aviv for its criminal actions against the Palestinians.
African opposition to migration of Gaza people
According to the Times of Israel, Israel is working on a plan for "voluntary migration" of Palestinians of Gaza to Congo and other countries, including Chad and Rwanda, but African countries have refuted any talks with Tel Aviv on the plan. The spokesman to the Democratic Republic of Congo government said that the media without any consideration bring up the issue between Congo and the Israel regarding the acceptance of migrants from Gaza, but the government denies any contacts with Tel Aviv officials in this regard.
Today, a large part of the society across Africa express their solidarity with Palestine and this has inevitable consequences for Israelis, something showing that the Palestinian cause is the main factor foiling the Israeli policy of convergence with Africa.
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