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AN attempt by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reset relations with the African Union (AU) started on a wrong footing and ended with “disaster” diplomacy.
At last week’s 36th Summit of the AU, the ejection of Israeli diplomat, Ambassador Sharon Bar-li, left Israel raging at Algeria and South Africa for initiating the move.
According to the AU’s Constitutive Act, there is no legal provision that gives Israel an observer status in the continental body.
Assuming that Algeria and South Africa led the disapproval and ejection of Ambassador Bar-li, the two powerful African states need to be praised for the excellence of their moral compass to defend the pan-African agenda from infiltration by the apartheid and colonising state against Palestinian humanity.
AU member states and African citizens should not be unmindful that Israel is working to destabilise and divide Africa through Morocco.
The return of Morocco into the AU fold in 2017 remains the biggest historical mistake which in retrospect can today be denounced as the succeeding actions indicate the AU danced into the hands of an arrogant colonial state and an instrument in the hands of Western states.
The Israeli government’s objectives of wanting to be closer to the AU and African countries lie on the basis that Israel wants to give the security dimension in its foreign engagements with African countries over traditional ones.
By being closer to African countries, Israel wants to reduce African solidarity with Palestine, to gain support at the United Nations (UN).
In 2017, on building relations with Africa, Netanyahu indicated that: “If I look at our foreign policy interests as a pyramid, Africa is very high. The first interest is to dramatically change the way Africa votes at the UN and in international bodies, from opposition to support.”
These are strategic calculations to enhance the Israeli-African relationship which is based on security, not economic alliances.
As a security alert, espionage and data collection is the key operation of Israeli activities in Africa. Therefore, the presence of Israel in Africa is advancing its interests and undermining Africa’s.
The genesis of the Israeli-AU row emanates from the decision in July 2021 by the AU Commissioner to unilaterally grant Israel observer status.
This came four years after Morocco’s readmission into the AU after a 32-year absence. This well-calculated move should not dilute the view of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and Palestinian recognition.
Coalition of criminals, colonists
The relationship between Morocco and Israel has grown closer because of the respective oppression and subjugation they have over the peoples of Western Sahara and Palestine respectively.
Both are colonising apartheid states that use lethal force against civilians and get the sympathy of the West for breaching United Nations (UN) resolutions.
SADR and Palestine are independent states whose existence is guaranteed in the 1933 Montevideo Convention.
The convention qualifies both SADR and Palestine to have statehood by possessing and fulfilling four key international law provisions that include having a permanent population; a defined territory; government; and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.
Breaches to international law regards the rights of the people of SADR and Palestinians, their statehood, sovereignty and ability to enter into diplomatic and multilateral relations are being necessitated by the US, through its global hegemony and Morocco and Israel in Africa and the Middle-East.
Sadly, for the two colonised states, it appears the world has been benumbed and no longer caring to grieve and struggle for the rights of the two for independence against apartheid.
Turning a blind eye to the provisions of international law is all but a bid to victimise Palestinians and SADR.
The problem of Morocco
Last November, Morocco summoned former African foreign ministers and former heads of government who became part of 19 signatories to what became known as the “Tangier Appeal” in Marrakech.
The appeal was signed as strategy to cause divisions within Africa three months before the 36th AU Summit.
The “Tangier Appeal” was signed by representatives from Guinea-Bissau, Djibouti, Central African Republic, Somalia, Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Benin, Comoros, Liberia, Gabon, Malawi, Cape Verde, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Kenya.
The signatories are calling for “the expulsion of the so-called SADR from the African Union” and they reiterated their “full commitment to work together and in coordination for the exclusion of this non-state entity from the African Union.”
This is Morocco, a country that abandoned the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and on several occasions tried to join the European Economic Community before it became the European Union (EU).
Culturally and principally, Morocco has not had values of Africanness, but feels credible by having closer association with Europe over African.
This is the same country that in July last year sent security forces that beat to death African immigrants who were trying to cross into Spain.
It is the same country that is having a coalition with the Israeli government and since December 2020 the two have been doing architectural work to have the AU remain divided.
As the continent quests for the right path to Agenda 2063, it is imperative to highlight that what makes the AU a continental body is more to do with Africa’s values and architecture of Pan-Ubuntuism than it is to do with geography.
Geography alone should not be used to embrace a country as African because Morocco has always, for a long time, thought of fulfilling the European and American agenda than upholding Africa’s values.
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In all matters, Africa needs a unitary voice that has a say in this changing world, to both members and outsiders.
To demolish the unity that was formulated in fighting colonialism at this moment is an initiative that will only benefit those plotting against the continent.
More compromises, no principle
Truth is always on the side of the oppressed. Principles cannot and should not be compromised, however, poverty is a sad development for some African governments.
Many African leaders are dancing to the tune that invites them to a dinner that has been prepared by men with evil intentions because they are getting small pieces of gold and become signatories on matters that have a bearing to the continent’s future.
There can be no compromise on moral issues.
There can be no compromise on matters of knowledge, of truth, of rational conviction. Morocco is one neighbour that is never likeable in form, content and character.
Those being bought to eliminate traces of African values will never be respected by posterity.
Like what religious reformer Martin Luther said: “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand.”
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