On African solidarity with Palestine in times of genocide

On 7 April, Avraham Nigusse, Israel’s ambassador to Ethiopia, was expelled from an event commemorating the 1994 Rwandan genocide, held by the African Union in Addis Ababa — reportedly at the request of the African Union’s new chairperson, Mahmoud Youssouf. Nigusse, an Ethiopia-born former Knesset member in Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right Likud party, protested the decision, accusing Youssouf of introducing “anti-Israel political elements” to the event, and of lacking awareness of the history “of both the Rwandan and Jewish peoples”, both of whom have been victims of genocide. 

Nigusse’s anger at his removal was predictable. Israeli officials are often invited to events marking the Rwandan genocide by that government, and Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, even visited Kigali last year to attend a gathering for the 30th anniversary — even as his country was carrying out a genocidal war in Gaza. “It remains ironic that a state committing such a declared magnitude of massacres in Gaza participates in this painful commemoration”, wrote Geeska’s editor-in-chief, Suhaib Mahmoud. “Often, Israel’s compound of narcissism and racial prejudice drives it to such extremes of mockery”, he added, pointing out the grim irony of Herzog’s attendance. Even more concerning for the Rwandans should be the questions around Israel’s possible role in that genocide. When Yair Auron, an Israeli academic, asked his country’s defence ministry to reveal any possible arms exports to Rwanda at the height of the fighting there, it refused, claiming disclosure could harm its “foreign relations” and “security”. The correct response would have been: “Here you go — we have nothing to hide.” 

Nigusse’s allegation that Youssouf didn’t know the history of the Rwandan and Jewish peoples belies the fact that he clearly isn’t aware of the broader solidarity Africans have shown for Palestinians throughout their struggle against Israel, and that his removal from the event was merely the latest such manifestation.

Hamas hailed the Israeli ambassador’s removal from the event, describing it as a “courageous stance” that aligns with the “values and principles, as well as its historic positions in support of the Palestinian cause and our people’s struggle against Zionist colonialism.” The decision to stress the backstory of African solidarity with Palestine is important here from Hamas. Nigusse’s allegation that Youssouf didn’t know the history of the Rwandan and Jewish peoples belies the fact that he clearly isn’t aware of the broader solidarity Africans have shown for Palestinians throughout their struggle against Israel, and that his removal from the event was merely the latest such manifestation. 

Last year, during the African Union’s 37th summit, the former Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, was invited to address delegates from across the continent, alongside the then-African Union Commission chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat. Shtayyeh urged the “voice of Africa and the voice of your union to be loud for the freedom of Palestine and the right of its people to self-determination”. Faki in turn pledged “full solidarity” and the continent’s “unwavering commitment” to the full freedom of the Palestinian people, and the chamber erupted into several long rounds of applause. 

In 2023, just a year earlier, Sharon Bar-Li, an Israeli diplomat, was hauled out of the African Union after attending an event she was apparently not invited to. Moussa Faki Mahamat, the African Union chairperson, said the decision was taken because Israel’s status as an observer state had been suspended. Bar-Li later protested that she was removed due to objections from South Africa and Algeria, both of whom strongly opposed her presence. Like her colleague Nigusse she was ignoring the strength with which the Palestinian issue resonates on the continent. A quick glance at the countries in Africa that recognise Palestine makes that clear. There are only a few outliers, and Israel is very much an outcast state there. “Pariahtude” is how Zach Levey, a scholar on Israeli foreign policy once characterised their isolation. 

Israel’s reputation in Africa wasn’t always as poor as it is today. Many of the early Zionists were committed to, and saw a connection between, the fates of Africa and the Jewish people. Theodor Herzl – who is to Zionism what Colonel Harland Sanders is to KFC – said once “I have witnessed the redemption of the Jews, my people; I wish also to assist in the redemption of the Africans,” in his influential pamphlet The Jewish State. Golda Meir, Israel’s foreign minister in the 1950s and 1960s, similarly believed that “Jews share with the African peoples a memory of centuries-long suffering,” and that for Jews and Africans, “expressions such as discrimination, oppression and slavery — these are not mere catchwords… They refer to the torment and degradation we suffered yesterday and today.” This bond also wasn’t just something Israel imagined. The connection found its greatest expression in the Ethiopian Jewish community, who weren’t persecuted in the same way as Europe’s Jewry but were largely marginalised in Ethiopia. 

Following a visit to Gaza, Malcolm X said Israel was skillfully attempting to use the relative underdevelopment of the Arab world to induce “Africans to turn away from the Arabs and towards the Israelis for teachers and technical assistance” and undermine this African solidarity with Palestine. 

Tel Aviv actively and intensively engaged with its African counterparts in the 1950s and 1960s, sending technocrats, doctors, engineers, and teachers to several newly independent countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Following a visit to Gaza in 1967, Malcolm X said Israel was “indirectly” attempting to use the relative underdevelopment of the Arab world to induce “Africans to turn away from the Arabs and towards the Israelis for teachers and technical assistance” and undermine African solidarity with Palestine. The American magazine, Newsweek, called the relationship Israel was forging with African countries “one of the strangest unofficial alliances in the world”. One Israeli foreign ministry official told Samuel Decalo in an interview for his book Israel & Africa: Forty Years why the outreach was so urgent, saying that Africa was a “battleground between Israel and the Arabs.” The unnamed official added: “It is a fight of life or death for us.” 

From 1973, Israel began losing ground following a heavy diplomatic offensive by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which managed to persuade African capitals that Israel was a belligerent regime occupying the territory of an African country after it seized the Sinai from Egypt in 1967. The October War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt marked a defining “with us or against us” moment for African countries. In 1973, Niger, Chad, Mali, and Congo cut ties with Israel in solidarity with Egypt and possibly fearing King Faisal’s oil embargo on countries supporting Israel during the war. 

Idi Amin, who had severed relations a year earlier in 1972, was preparing to take the helm of the Organisation of African Unity in 1975, succeeding Somali President Siad Barre, in Kampala, Uganda. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, was a special guest at the meeting, delivering a speech to delegates for the first time at the organisation, with a pistol at his waist and a keffiyeh wrapped around his head. “We are confident of our ultimate victory. Africa is a symbol of the future and Africa stands with us”, Arafat said. The famous “three nos” resolution by the Arab League – “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it” – was devised in Khartoum, an important African city. Shafiq al-Hout, one of the founding members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), was in attendance at the conference. Though he later wrote that he wasn’t particularly impressed by what was agreed or his Arab counterparts, in his memoir My Life in the PLO, published years later, he recalled that the only thing which saved him from “complete despair” were the “thundering demonstrations of the Sudanese people, who had come to Khartoum from all parts of the country to receive the Arab leaders and encourage them to fight back and avenge the [1967] defeat”.

The solidarity between Africa and Palestine was far from one-sided. After the 1975 OAU meeting, Palestinian commandos participated in a mock assault organised by Idi Amin on Cape Town, then under apartheid rule. Jaafar Nimeiri, Sudan’s leader, was there, as was Siad Barre, Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya, and Moktar Ould Daddah, the then-president of Mauritania. The idea was to show that Africans could stand together against apartheid South Africa and the Palestinians wanted a slice of the action. Nelson Mandela, who once said Arafat was an “icon in the proper sense” and other African rebel leaders were always grateful for the support Arafat showed for them as they fought European colonial empires. Ronnie Kasrils, a former South African guerrilla fighter and politician, said his fellow rebels had a “special affection” for the Palestinian people, whose struggle they came to understand deeply through poems, stories, and books. “When we trained in Algeria, Egypt, and the Soviet Union, our paths crossed — and we were elated to share similar stories,” Kasrils said.

In a recent piece for the Mail & Guardian, Palestine’s ambassador to South Africa, Hanan Jarrah, echoed Nelson Mandela who once said the freedom of the continent could not be complete without Palestine. Jarrah wrote that “African nations have regarded the Palestinian struggle as an African issue”, adding that the African Union had been “one of Palestine’s most important and loyal allies” in the fight for freedom and self-determination. Indeed, even as he was surrounded by Israeli forces in Ramallah in 2002, during the second intifada, Arafat sent Farouq Kadoumi, his special envoy, to appeal to African nations to raise their voices on his behalf. He was confident that his request would be met with a warm reception. Much more could be said about this deeply intertwined history and the special place many African liberation movements gave to the Palestinian struggle in their own programmes for freedom, from Algeria to Namibia and Mozambique. What this ultimately makes clear is that while early Israeli leaders saw parallels between their own battle against racism in Europe and that of Africans, Africans viewed the Palestinian experience as much closer to their own. This trend has only gained momentum, particularly with Israel’s total destruction of Gaza.

Jarrah wrote that “African nations have regarded the Palestinian struggle as an African issue”, adding that the African Union had been “one of Palestine’s most important and loyal allies” in the fight for freedom and self-determination.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu no longer pretends there’s anything to be gained, openly enlisting US president Donald Trump to assist in displacing people from Gaza to selected African countries of his choosing. Incidentally, this was the initial framework of Israel’s relationship with Rwanda, which became a destination for migrants Israel sought to deport in exchange for financial compensation. That plan failed then, and Israel’s new program to try to ethnically cleanse Gaza’s population has also met firm resistance from African states unwilling to participate in such an awful act. 

As of 12 April, well over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. Almost the entire population of the besieged territory has been displaced. The International Court of Justice is investigating Israel on genocide charges in a case brought by South Africa, which now has the support of Egypt and Namibia. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant. The current head of the African Union, Mahmoud Youssouf, who sits at the centre of this dispute, was, in fact, partly elected for his stronger and more principled stance on Israel than his competitor Raila Odinga, according to The Africa Report.

All this is a sign that the rich vein of solidarity which runs from Palestine across Africa remains strong. The removal of the Israeli ambassador, Avraham Nigusse, should be viewed in that context and not as an unfair attempt to target him. Nigusse alleges that the AU has misunderstood the meaning of the event which he was ejected from and says “anti-Israel elements” were introduced. Despite being born on the continent himself, it is he who has lost his grip on reality and no longer sees what a moral affront it is for a man commemorating a genocide in Africa to sit representing an apartheid state which is carrying out its one of its own today.