After decades in diplomatic deep-freeze, how did Israel become one of Africa's best friends?
Africa's polyvalent response to the latest flare-up of the Israel-Palestine conflict has provoked conversations about the changing character of the continent's foreign policy objectives. For decades, post-independent African states stood rock solid behind the Palestinian cause. In 1973, a majority of them broke ties with Israel in compliance with the resolution of the African Union (AU) frontrunner, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), over the Yom-Kippur War and the resulting oil crisis. In 2002, the PLO was granted a non-member observer status in the African Union (AU), such was the strength of the bond that historically existed between Africa and the Palestinian people. But as news of Hamas's audacious invasion of Israel hit the airwaves on October 7, the reactions from African heads of state immediately showed that not only has this historical bond severely weakened, but also the united voice with which the continent had often addressed global events was no longer in existence.
Although the African Union (AU) in a statement released on October 7 placed responsibility for the conflict on Israel by insisting that the "denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, particularly that of an independent and sovereign State, is the main cause of the permanent Israeli-Palestinian tension", several member states chose to ignore this stance, preferring to take positions that they believed were in the best interest of their own states.
So far, three broad camps have emerged. On the one hand, there is a pro-Israel camp represented by Kenya, Ghana, Congo DRC, Zambia, and Cameroon. On the other hand is a pro-Palestine camp ably represented by South Africa, Algeria, Sudan, Chad, Tunisia, and several other countries in North Africa. There is a non-aligned camp whose most obvious representatives are Nigeria, Uganda, Angola, and Tanzania.
A Crack in the Wall
Much before October 7, events in Africa and within the AU had already foreshadowed the current unfolding polarization. These events also amply demonstrate how Israel's diplomatic offensive to regain influence in Africa poses a threat to the continent's unity and the corporate integrity of African Union. In a move that surprised and angered many, the African Union Commission Chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, unilaterally granted observer status to Israel in 2021 in flagrant violation of the values enshrined in the AU's Constitutive Act, which stands against apartheid and colonialism. The decision split the continental body into a North/South vs. East/West divide. Although stiff opposition from member-states like South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Namibia, Botswana, and Tunisia forced the AU to suspend the controversial decision early in the year, the ground for division had already been laid.
The present disharmony is therefore the fruit of Israel's ruthless diplomatic offensive that had been in operation for decades and which seeks to bend client African States to Tel-Aviv's will. A taste of Israel's approach can be seen in its reaction to the incident at the AU summit in Addis Ababa in February 2023 where the Israeli envoy was kicked out: "It is saddening to see the African Union taken hostage by a small number of extremist states like Algeria and South Africa, which are driven by hatred and controlled by Iran," a spokesperson Israel foreign ministry said.
Meanwhile, this development only further reflects Israel's complicated relationship with Africa. Recall that in 1948 when the state of Israel was established on Palestinian land, a majority of African states were still under the incubus of colonial rule. However, by the '50s and '60s, colonialism had begun to crumble across the region as one African state after another achieved independence and self-governance. This gave Israel, which was isolated and nearly a pariah nation, the chance it had been waiting for both to gain new friends and increase its votes in the United Nations. Guided by its "peripheral diplomacy doctrine", which focused on developing close ties with non-Arab Muslim countries, Israel immediately began to court the leaders of the new states by sending Jewish technical, educational, construction, and agricultural experts from Foreign Ministry's Centre for International Cooperation (MASHAV) to help the new states with the vital task of nation-building.
The first Israeli consulate in Africa was set up in Accra (Ghana) in 1956 and, until the late 1960s, a golden era in Israel-African relations blossomed under the leadership of then Foreign Minister Golda Meir, who later became Prime Minister. Very few African states can claim not to owe their post-independent development to the contribution of Israeli aid and expertise in different fields.
1967 was the year African states began to reconsider their relationship with Israel following the Six-Day War, which saw Israel's humiliation of one of the lynchpins of pan-Africanism, Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt, and the military occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. African states newly emerged from a colonial past were appalled at the treatment of the Palestinians and felt a common bond with them. It however took another six years for a decisive break to take place in 1973 when a majority of African states severed ties with Tel-Aviv over the Yom-Kippur War and the resulting oil crisis. This upended the Israeli-Africa relationship with the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, precursor to the AU), once declaring at a meeting held in Uganda in 1975 that "the racist regime in occupied Palestine and the racist regime in Zimbabwe and South Africa have a common imperialist origin, forming a whole and having the same racist structure and being organically linked in their policy aimed at the repression of the dignity and integrity of the human being".
The resulting isolation of Israel on the world stage amidst the loss of the collective votes of African states in the United Nations created a setback for Israel's foreign policy goals. This explains the enormous effort Jerusalem has invested over the past decades to restore diplomatic ties and friendship with Africa. Unfortunately, neither the method nor the goal of Israel is altruistic or in Africa's interest. Rather, they are about transforming Africa into a voting bloc to support Israel's geo-strategic interest in the Middle East especially its occupation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Gaza strip. As PM Benjamin Netanyahu said in a 2017 briefing to Israeli ambassadors to Africa: "The first interest is to dramatically change the situation regarding African votes at the UN and other international bodies from opposition to support...This is our goal..."
Détente
The '80s marked the beginning of spirited, even if initially clandestine efforts by Israel to rekindle its influence on the continent. Prof. Irit Back, an expert on Israel-African relations, noted that: "[T]here [has been] a major shift in the relations of many African countries toward Israel since the 1980s, and the last move of rapprochement was the Abraham Accords, especially in relation to Sudan and Morocco".
The oil embargo following the Yom-Kippur War had led to a spike in crude oil prices but the cheaper oil promised by the Arab League did not materialize. So, in several countries - Zaire, Liberia, Cote D'Ivoire, and Cameroon, to name a few - clandestine economic and military cooperation with Israel took place throughout the '80s. Desperate to gain friends, Israel had began to court the apartheid regime in South Africa in the 1960s - something which still hampers Jerusalem's relationship with the post-apartheid government to this day.
Sascha Polakow-Suransky in his book, "The Unspoken Alliance", has unearthed copious details of illicit cooperation between Israel and Apartheid South Africa focused on training the latter's elite military units, provision of tanks, Galil rifles, and aviation technology by Jerusalem as well as a joint pursuit to produce nuclear weapons. This explains why, shortly after gaining his freedom from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela declared, "The people of South Africa will never forget the support of the state of Israel to the apartheid regime."
The end of the Cold War saw relations between Israel and Africa also thawing; more African states began to restore ties with Tel-Aviv. The ensuing detente was encouraged by the US-dominated unipolar global system. The Anwar Sadat-era (1971 - 1981) détente - marked by the 1978 Israel-Camp David Accord, the 1982 Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula - culminated with the signing of the Oslo Peace Agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in 1993. Israel's peace treaty with Jordan in 1994 eliminated the obstacles preventing African countries from accepting Israel's friendship. By the late '90s, Israel had successfully re-established official ties with at least 39 African countries. Today, Israel and the sub-Saharan countries are engaged in reciprocal visits by heads of state and government ministers alongside a variety of economic and commercial ties, cultural and academic contacts, medical assistance, and humanitarian aid in times of need.
In September 2009, Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Liberman, visited four African states, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda, where he signed a series of political, economic and development cooperation agreements while inaugurating a host of joint projects.
Charm Offensive
Diplomatic moves towards rapprochement have been most intense under Israel's current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who had previously held the position between 1996 to 1999 and then 2009 to 2021. In 2016 during Kenya President, Uhuru Kenyatta's state visit to Israel, Netanyahu declared "Israel is coming back to Africa, and Africa is returning to Israel". Netanyahu is the Israeli prime minister who has visited Africa the most stopping over in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda during a state visit in 2016. The following year, he became the first leader outside of Africa to address the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government Summit in Liberia. So far, Israel has strengthened relations with African countries, particularly several key northern and Sub-Saharan African states.
Broadly speaking, Netanyahu's foreign policy calculus in Africa is predicated on three charm offensives viz; trade, economic aid, reinforcement of African states defense capacity. Under these guiding principles, the Israel government has provided energy, technological and agricultural expertise, arms in conflicts in South Sudan and Burundi, and supported efforts to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014. Several African countries have benefited from enhanced cooperation in trade, energy, food security, agriculture, cyber security, and defense. Indeed, South Africa and Nigeria are Israel's biggest trading partners on the continent. Trade between Israel and South Africa amounted to $496 million at the end of 2021, with South Africa exporting $255 million while Israel's exports amounted to $241 million. And earlier this year, the Israeli ambassador to Nigeria disclosed that annual bilateral trade between the two states stood at $250 million.
In 2016, the Republic of Guinea, a Muslim-majority country in West Africa, became the latest country to renew diplomatic relations with Israel. In May of the same year, Tanzania opened an embassy in Tel Aviv followed by Rwanda two months later. Israel has also started relations with the Arab World, notably Saudi Arabia, United Arabs Emirates and Bahrain, through the Abraham Accords which occurred during Donald Trump's presidency in the US. In October and December of the same year, Israel signed normalization agreements with two Arab league countries, Sudan and Morocco. Although the normalisation with Sudan is far from complete two years after, the Abraham Accords have effectively brought to an end pan-Arab solidarity for Palestine predicated on the famous three 'nos' viz; "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel".
In 2022, both Israel and Morocco agreed to deepen trade and economic ties, renewable energy, recycling, solar energy, the hydrogen economy amidst other sectors. A core aspect of the agreement with Morocco is for Rabat to recognize the state of Israel while Tel Aviv also recognizes Morocco's annexation of the disputed Western Sahara where the Polisario Front seeks independence. This is another example of how Israel's rising influence on the continent reinforces colonial practices and oppression. Since the deal, Morocco has received drones and other military equipment from Israel, in an arms race with its rival Algeria, which backs Palestine and Polisario. Chad, another Muslim-majority country, opened an embassy in Israel in February 2023 following a rapprochement agreement in 2019. A big factor in the renewal of relations is the security threats faced by Chad and Israel's subsequent military assistance, including training, counterterrorism measures, and weapon sales.
Spyware Diplomacy
Israeli military hardware and technologies for surveillance, data-collection, and cyber warfare have become the main attraction for African states. According to the Israeli defense ministry, defense exports to Africa rose by 70% to $6.5 billion in 2016 -- an $800 million increase from the previous year. In fact, the increasing embrace by several African authoritarian regimes of high-tech Israeli spyware and surveillance infrastructures shows how Israeli cyberweapons and surveillance industry is closely linked to Tel Aviv's program to normalise diplomatic ties in Africa, from Togo to Morocco.
Spyware has become a currency or bargaining chip with which Israel procures client states' good graces. Countries like Mexico and Panama have shifted their positions toward Israel in important votes at the United Nations after gaining access to Pegasus, a military-grade surveillance software created by NSO Group, a company headquartered in the district of Tel Aviv. The Pegasus spyware has been described as "the world's most powerful cyber weapon" whose sale has also reportedly played a critical role in Israel securing the support of Arab nations during negotiations of the Abraham Accords and its now defunct bid for Observer Status at the African Union (AU). At least 26 countries are known to have purchased the Pegasus software leading to a spike in reports of digital surveillance of citizens and activists. In 2021, the Pegasus Project, a journalism consortium, obtained a leaked list of fifty thousand phone numbers that were reportedly entered into a Pegasus database.
The Pegasus spyware has also been linked to the epidemic of shrinking civic space and reinforcement of authoritarianism in Africa. For instance, Rwandan authorities have used Pegasus spyware to target more than 3,500 activists, journalists and politicians. There are also allegations that Ghana used the spyware to spy on the country's opposition figures ahead of the 2016 general elections. Likewise, Morocco has used Pegasus to target as many as 10,000 phone numbers, including Sahraoui human rights activist Aminatou Haidar and Moroccan journalist Omar Radi. In like manner, Togolese journalist, Komlanvi Ketohou, who had been arrested and detained for reporting nationwide protests opposing President Faure Gnassingbé's rule had his device, along with those of several other journalists, targeted for surveillance by the authorities.
Golda Meier and Jesus
A former Israeli ambassador to Ghana, Sharon Bar-Lee, once said "Israel has two major brands in Ghana - Golda Meir and Jesus." This demonstrates the crucial role the Christian religion plays for Israel in Africa. For instance, positive public perception of Israel owing to the influence of the Christian evangelical movement in Ghana played a role in the country's restoration of bilateral ties with Israel in 2011 after nearly 40 years apart. Furthermore, a 2014 BBC World Service poll found that the population of Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and the United States were most sympathetic to Israel's global image.
Evidently, the growth in support for Israel by ordinary citizens cannot be divorced from the rise of Pentecostalism and evangelical Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa. This trend which started in the 1980s onwards has seen Pentecostalism or what is better known as the "born-again" Christian movement experience a burst in growth on a scale never imagined. According to the Pew Research Centre, a 2006 figure by the World Christian Database says Pentecostals now represent 12%, or about 107 million, of Africa's population. Meanwhile, Pentecostals and charismatics combined represented less than 5% of Africans in the 1970s. Worth noting however is the fact that Pentecostals are not the only Christian group in Africa to have experienced significant growth in recent decades. Infact, Christianity as a whole increased from about 144 million by 1970 to around 400 million, or 46% of the population. Although no part is left untouched yet the extent of growth of Pentecostalism across Sub-Saharan Africa varies with countries like Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Congo-Zaire, Nigeria, Kenya, Angola, Zambia and Uganda, showing Pentecostal and Charismatic believers forming around 20% of the national populations, whereas in Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Madagascar and Sudan, they make up less than 10% of the population. However in countries like Congo-Brazzaville, the Central African Republic, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia and Mozambique, they make up between 10% and 20% of the national population.
Despite the regional differences, Pentecostalism has without doubt become an increasingly prominent feature of Africa's religious and political landscape. While nationalist movements drove African politics during the era of decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s, mammoth Pentecostal churches dotting the African landscape and their celebrity televangelists are now beginning to shape politics and influence electoral choices. In Nigeria, Pentecostals and other evangelicals have formed a big voting bloc that politicians cannot ignore. In the 2011 general elections, Goodluck Jonathan, a Pentecostal Christian, was elected President. Although he lost the following 2015 general elections to a Muslim, Muhammadu Buhari after a sclerotic first term, yet it cannot be ignored that Buhari's choice of a Vice Presidential candidate, Yemi Osinbajo, a law professor and also a pastor from Nigeria's largest Pentecostal Church, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, played a crucial role. All through his term, Jonathan promoted the Pentecostal Christian image to a fault while courting Israel with state visits and pilgrimages. On December 30, 2014, Nigeria's envoy to the United Nations Security Council, Joy Ogwu, abstained from a vote which if passed would have led Israel to end its occupation of the territories captured following the 1967 war. The Nigerian abstention caught all delegates by surprise and was said to have come about following a phone call between Netanyahu and Jonathan. Similar examples of how Pentecostalism influences Africa's politics abound in other parts, mirroring a trend that has also become evident in Latin America. For instance in Kenya, Pentecostals actively campaigned against and helped defeat President Mwai Kibaki's draft constitution in November 2005.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Pentecostalism has also become the shortest possible link towards Zionism. "The story of the exodus in the Bible advantages every person of Jewish descent. The interpretation of Jew and Gentile runs deep in how people understand the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." FM Lucky Mathebula Mathebula, the director of the Thinc Foundation, a South African Thinktank told African Arguments. He is not alone in this assessment. Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) and editor of its foreign policy and national security journal, Providence, pointed out how: "Even more than USA Evangelicals, Global South Evangelicals, especially Pentecostals, tend to be pro-Israel, and their Zionism is influencing the foreign policy of their nations." This explains how the General Overseer of Nigeria's largest Pentecostal Church, The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), reacted to the news of the Israel-Palestine war. In a special message to the nation of Israel posted on X, Adeboye could be heard praying: "The almighty God, the only one of Israel, will give you absolute victory and give you permanent peace from now on in the mighty name of Jesus." In 2011, Adeboye visited Israel and was received by Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. While there, he summed up the attitude of Africa's Pentecostal and Evangelical Christians towards Israel: "I believe that the problems we see between Jews and the rest of the world are because they are God's chosen. When you are special in the eyes of God, automatically people will dislike you. I do not see why anyone should think that the Jews may not live in their homeland. I believe that no matter how hard they try, they will not be able to move the Nation of Israel from the place God gave their forefathers."
Despite the official diplomatic frenzy to put forward a unifying brand of Israel as a start-up nation and tech-savvy industrialized state, Israeli diplomats have increasingly found the potency of the attraction of Pentecostalism too good to ignore when it comes to deepening Israel's foreign policy objectives whether in Latin America or in Sub-Saharan Africa. For years now and through the aid of Christian advocacy outfits like the Africa-Israel Initiative which was launched in Johannesburg, South Africa in November 2011, Israel has been trying to tap into the Pentecostal revival on the continent in order to further its own geo-strategic interests. Notably, out of the 19 countries represented in the African-Israel Initiative, sixteen are in Africa, demonstrating the far-reaching role of Christian Pentecostal religion in Israel's growing influence on the continent. As its primary objective, members of the Africa-Israel Initiative hope to convince "African countries to support Israel at the United Nations level, and for Africa to be blessed by the God of Israel for supporting Israel." As Yotam Gidron, a PhD student in African History in Durham University (UK), noted: "Israel and its supporters around the world are clearly grateful for these developments. For now, the evangelical politics of blessings help legitimize apartheid and further suppress calls for accountability, justice, and democratization in Israel-Palestine."
Obiora Ikoku is a freelance journalist and activist from Lagos, Nigeria. He writes about social movements and the geopolitics of Africa's relations with the rest of the world.
