The ANC has welcomed the ‘encouraging’ expulsion of an Israeli observer delegation from the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa on Saturday, a development Jerusalem considers to have been a grave diplomatic incident.
The Israeli delegation, headed by Foreign Ministry Deputy Director General for Africa, Sharon Bar-Li, was escorted out of the AU assembly in the Ethiopian capital.
The Foreign Ministry said the incident showed the AU ‘has been taken hostage by a small number of extremist countries such as Algeria and South Africa, driven by hatred and controlled by Iran’.
The Foreign Ministry has said the charge d’affaires at the South African embassy in Israel would be summoned in the coming days for a dressing down by the ministry’s director-general, Ronen Levy.
In a statement yesterday, the ANC, which regards Israel as an ‘apartheid state’, gave clear support for the delegation’s ousting.
The ANC said Bar-Li’s removal was aimed at ‘thwarting an attempt to undermine the current sitting AU Summit from considering a report that is supposed to guide discussions on whether Israel must be granted an observer status’.
The issue of Israel’s observer status has caused deep discord in the 55-member bloc.
At last year’s summit, a debate on the issue was suspended in a bid to avoid a vote that would create an unprecedented rift in the Union. Instead, a committee was set up that was supposed to give its recommendations at this year’s summit.
Forty-four out of 55 African states have diplomatic relations with Israel. South Africa has also led a hostile campaign against Israel in the EU.