Israel should not have a spot on the African Union till it ends its occupation of Palestine – Center East Monitor

Africa is an emblem of the long run and Africa stands with us,” declared Yasser Arafat, then chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) at a gathering of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in July 1975 within the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Twenty-seven years later, because the OAU stood on the edge of being reborn because the African Union in 2002, the Palestinian battle icon was besieged by Israeli troops at his headquarters in Ramallah. Arafat despatched his envoy, Farouq Kaddoumi, to attend the ultimate OAU assembly in Durban, South Africa. By Kaddoumi, Arafat appealed to African leaders for the AU to proceed supporting and advocating for Palestinian freedom.

The AU didn’t fail the Palestinian individuals; it has been certainly one of Palestine’s most essential and dependable allies previously 19 years.

Israel’s colonisation, unlawful occupation of Palestine, and oppression of the Palestinian individuals have featured prominently at AU summits. The AU, and the OAU earlier than it, has persistently condemned Israel’s use of deadly, illegal power towards Palestinian civilians, its violations of worldwide regulation, and annexation of Palestinian land.

At its final summit in February this yr, the AU particularly referred to as on its members to respect the worldwide authorized standing of East Jerusalem as occupied and because the capital of the long run Palestinian state and reiterated the illegality of all Israeli settlements within the West Financial institution and the Syrian Golan Heights.

READ: African Union slams Israel violence against Palestinians

Supported by AU members and its leaders, African nations have regarded the Palestinian battle as an African challenge. It is a reflection of the bonds between Africa’s liberation and anti-colonial struggles and people of the Palestinian individuals.

It’s inside this context, then, that the choice by AU Fee chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, to unilaterally settle for the credentials of Israel’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Aleli Admasu, is all of the extra bewildering. The transfer undermines the anti-colonial values that underpin the AU.

Mahamat stated Israel’s diplomatic relations with AU member states justified his determination to grant Israel AU observer standing. However this determination is just not about whether or not Israeli diplomatic missions exist in African nations.

That is about the kind of political and diplomatic recognition — and normalisation of colonialism — that comes with attaining observer standing in an establishment that serves as an anti-colonial beacon.

Gaining observer standing brings Israel into a proper relationship with the AU. That could be a privilege that Israel — a violent occupying energy whose actions violate the spirit, targets, and ideas of the AU — merely doesn’t deserve at this second.

Now the AU dangers following the instance of a lot of the worldwide neighborhood’s inaction.

The Israeli occupation of Palestine has entered its 54th yr, whereas the continuing violent displacement of Palestinians to make manner for the creation of Israel (referred to as the Nakba) is in its 73rd yr. That’s 73 years of Israeli colonial insurance policies that manifest by way of crippling sieges, land theft, and systemic violence within the Gaza Strip and West Financial institution. Israel has been in a position to maintain this unlawful state of affairs solely due to the world’s inaction.

It’s unthinkable that some AU member states, which themselves have emerged from painful histories of colonialism and occupation, brazenly help the presence of a modern-day colonial energy comparable to Israel on the AU.

So long as the worldwide neighborhood — now, shockingly, together with the AU — continues to welcome Israel with privileges and distinctions, it successfully provides our Israeli colonisers permission to proceed the occupation. Phrases with out actions are meaningless.

The Southern African Improvement Neighborhood (SADC) has collectively objected to Mahamat’s determination to grant Israel observer standing. SADC’s place is in keeping with the positions of Mauritania, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Comoros, and Djibouti which have additionally lodged formal objections with the AU. These nations function a lodestar for different African nations in the right way to develop significant solidarity with Palestine by transferring past phrases and recalibrating their relations with Israel.

OPINION: Has the AU declared war on member states with Israel’s ‘observer status’?

Additionally it is inspiring to see the outpouring of help from dozens of political and civil society teams, commerce unions, pupil networks and spiritual formations all through Africa. Coming collectively because the Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Community, they’ve collectively rejected Mahamat’s determination. These teams are exhibiting their governments what real solidarity seems to be like, and remind Palestinians that the African individuals nonetheless stand with us in our battle for liberation.

When the problem of Israel’s observer standing comes earlier than the AU government council in October, member states should act collectively to ship Israel a transparent message that it can not occupy a individuals for 54 years, perpetuate apartheid practices, after which be given the privilege of becoming a member of the African household for a couple of hole phrases about peace, assist, and funding.

In 1975, the OAU declared that “… the racist [Israeli] regime in occupied Palestine and the racist regime in Zimbabwe and South Africa have a typical imperialist origin, forming a complete and having the identical racist construction and being organically linked of their coverage aimed on the repression of the dignity and integrity of the human being”.

Within the 46 years since that declaration, the regimes in then-Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa had been dismantled by way of inner resistance that was supported by an intensive worldwide boycott, divestment, and sanctions marketing campaign. Neither regime was welcomed on the OAU till it ended its apartheid and colonial practices. So how, then, can the apartheid regime occupying Palestine be rewarded with observer standing on the AU whereas it continues its lawlessness and violations?

Till it ends its occupation, colonisation, and apartheid towards the Palestinian individuals, Israel should not have a spot on the AU.

This text first appeared in Mail&Guardian on 2 September 2021

The views expressed on this article belong to the writer and don’t essentially mirror the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.